A Mere Chance: A Novel. Vol. 3

A NOVEL.
ADA CAMBRIDGE,
AUTHOR OF IN TWO YEARS TIME, &c.
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1882. Right of Translation Reserved.
CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
A PARABLE.
IT was about a month after the foregoing conversation took place, that Melbourne society was fluttered by a rumour that the engagement between Mr. Kingston and Miss Fetherstonhaugh, which had been unaccountably broken off, was on again, and that the long-delayed wedding was to take place immediately. Rumour for once in the way, was perfectly correct.
People went to call at Toorak, and found the aunt serene and radiant, and the bride-elect wearing all the honours of her position—not shyly as of yore, but with a quiet candour and dignified self-possession that was not generally considered becoming under the circumstances.
It was thought that a little humility would be proper in a young person who was going to enjoy such altogether undeserved good fortune.
It happened while she was staying at South Yarra. How it happened nobody quite knew. Gossip attributed it to Mrs. Reade's manœuvres; but Mrs. Reade, far from encouraging anything of the sort, set herself steadily against it, and warned Mr. Kingston of probable consequences in the most terse and trenchant manner (she had taken a very different view of the situation since her return from Adelonga).