"Who is talking nonsense now, Arabella?"
"I am not. But I shan't say it. And now, mamma, I'll tell you what we must do."
"You must tell me why also."
"I can do nothing of the kind. He knows the Duke." The Duke with the Trefoils always meant the Duke of Mayfair who was Arabella's ducal uncle.
"Intimately?"
"Well enough to go there. There is to be a great shooting at Mistletoe,"—Mistletoe was the duke's place,—"in January. I got that from him, and he can go if he likes. He won't go as it is: but if I tell him I'm to be there, I think he will."
"What did you tell him?"
"Well;—I told him a tarradiddle of course. I made him understand that I could be there if I pleased, and he thinks that I mean to be there if he goes."
"But I'm sure the Duchess won't have me again."
"She might let me come."