"
"She is not guiltless of having listened to you. That is quite enough for
me."
"I have done, sir," said George Fairfax gravely, and, with a bow and a
somewhat cynical smile, departed.
He had done what he felt himself bound to do. He had no ardent wish to
patch up the broken union between Clarissa and her husband. From the
first hour in which he heard of her marriage, he had held it in jealous
abhorrence. He had very little compunction about what had happened. It must
bring matters to a crisis, he thought. In the meantime, he would have given
a great deal to be able to communicate with Clarissa, and began accordingly
to deliberate how that might best be done.
He did not deliberate long; for while he was meditating all manner of
roundabout modes of approach, he suddenly remembered how Austin Lovel had
told him he always wrote to his sister under cover to her maid. All he had
to do, therefore, was to find out the maid's name.
That would be easy enough, Mr. Fairfax imagined, if his servant was good
for anything. The days of Leporello are over; but a well-bred valet may
still have some little talent for diplomacy.
"My fellow has only to waylay one of Granger's grooms," Mr. Fairfax said to
himself, "and he can get the information I want readily enough."
There was not much time to be lost, he thought. Mr. Granger had spoken of
his plans with a certain air of decision.
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