It would be rather pleasant to be carried to his grave from Arden
Court, if anything about a man's burial could be pleasant. He went back to
Spa and led his own life, and in a considerable measure forgot that he had
ever had a son and a daughter.
With September and October there came guests for the shooting, but George
Fairfax was not among them. Mr. Granger had not renewed that careless
invitation of his in Clarges-street. After supervising Clarissa's existence
for two or three weeks, Lady Laura had returned to Hale, there to reign in
all her glory. Mr. and Mrs. Granger dined at the castle twice in the course
of the autumn, and Clarissa saw Lady Geraldine for the first time since
that fatal wedding-day.
There was very little alteration in the fair placid face. Geraldine
Challoner was not a woman to wear the willow in any obvious manner. She
was still coldly brilliant, with just a shade more bitterness, perhaps, in
those little flashes of irony and cynicism which passed for wit. She talked
rather more than of old, Clarissa thought; she was dressed more elaborately
than in the days of her engagement to George Fairfax, and had altogether
the air of a woman who means to shine in society. To Mrs. Granger she was
polite, but as cold as was consistent with civility.
After a fortnight's slaughter of the pheasants, there was a lull in the
dissipations of Arden Court. Visitors departed, leaving Mr.
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