"Why, my dear? He is a very pleasant young man; and I know he likes our
part of the country. Besides, I suppose he will be a good deal at Hale this
year, and that his marriage will come off before long. Lord Calderwood must
have been dead year."
"Lord Calderwood has been dead nearly two years," replied Miss Granger. "I
fancy that engagement between Mr. Fairfax and Lady Geraldine must have been
broken off. If it were not so, they would surely have been married before
now. And I observed that Mr. Fairfax was not with Lady Laura to-day. I do
not know how long he may have been in the gardens," Miss Granger added,
with a suspicious glance at her stepmother, "but he certainly was not with
Lady Laura during any part of the time."
Clarissa blushed when Lady Geraldine's engagement was spoken of. She felt
as if she had been in some manner guilty in not having communicated the
intelligence Lady Laura had given her. It seemed awkward to have to speak
of it now.
"Yes," she said, with a very poor attempt at carelessness, "the engagement
is broken off. Lady Laura told me so some time ago."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Sophia. "How odd that you should not mention it!"
Daniel Granger looked first at his daughter, and then at his wife. There
was something in this talk, a sort of semi-significance, that displeased
him. What was George Fairfax, that either his wife or his daughter should
be interested in him?
"Clarissa may not have thought the fact worth mentioning, my dear," he said
stiffly.
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