‘It is all true; there, go and speak to Lady Armine. I am as nervous as you are.’
Ferdinand seated himself by his mother.
‘Well, Ferdinand,’ she said, ‘I have heard wonderful things.’
‘And I hope they have made you happy, mother?’
‘I should, indeed, be both unreasonable and ungrateful if they did not; but I confess to you, my dear child, I am even as much astonished as gratified.’
‘And my father, he knows everything?’
‘Everything. But we have heard it only from Lord Montfort and Katherine. We have had no communication with anyone else. And we meet here to-day in this extraordinary manner, and but for them we should be completely in the dark.’
‘And the duchess; do they know all?’
‘I conclude so.’
‘’Tis very strange, is it not?’