“If I let you go, it is only for the time,” Mr. Carruthers said, as I signed my name. “I intend you to marry me—do you hear!”
“Again I say qui vivra verra!” I laughed, and rose with the note in my hand.
Lord Robert looked almost ready to cry when I told him I was off in the afternoon.
“I shall see you again,” he said. “Lady Katherine is a relation of my aunt’s husband, Lord Merrenden. I don’t know her myself, though.”
I do not believe him—how can he see me again—young men do talk a lot of nonsense.
“I shall come over on Wednesday to see how you are getting on,” Mr. Carruthers said. “Please do be in.”
I promised I would, and then I came upstairs.
And so it has come to an end, my life at Branches. I am going to start a new phase of existence, my first beginning as an adventuress!
How completely all one’s ideas can change in a few days. This day three weeks ago Mrs. Carruthers was alive. This day two weeks ago I found myself no longer a prospective heiress—and only three days ago I was contemplating calmly the possibility of marrying Mr. Carruthers—and now—for heaven—I would not marry any one! And so, for fresh woods and pastures new. Oh! I want to see the world, and lots of different human beings—I want to know what it is makes the clock go round—that great, big, clock of life—I want to dance, and to sing, and to laugh, and to live—and—and—yes—perhaps some day to kiss some one I love——!