"Why are you so abstemious?"
"The birds are heavier and it answers better. But if I thought you would be at Custins it would be much nicer." Lady Mary again told him that as yet she knew nothing of her father's autumn movements.
But at the same time the Duke was arranging his autumn movements, or at any rate those of his daughter. Lady Cantrip had told him that the desirable son-in-law had promised to go to Custins, and suggested that he and Mary should also be there. In his daughter's name he promised, but he would not bind himself. Would it not be better that he should be absent? Now that the doing of this thing was brought nearer to him so that he could see and feel its details, he was disgusted by it. And yet it had answered so well with his wife!
"Is Lord Popplecourt intimate here?" Lady Mabel asked her friend, Lord Silverbridge.
"I don't know. I am not."
"Lady Cantrip seems to think a great deal about him."
"I dare say. I don't."
"Your father seems to like him."
"That's possible too. They're going back to London together in the governor's carriage. My father will talk high politics all the way, and Popplecourt will agree with everything."
"He isn't intended to—to—? You know what I mean."