The Dyspepsy departed unconsoled.
Sir Austin took up his brother's thought: "I suppose nothing short of a miracle helps us when we have offended her."
"Nothing short of a quack satisfies us," said Adrian, applying wax to an envelope of official dimensions.
Ripton sat accusing his soul of cowardice while they talked; haunted by Lucy's last look at him. He got up his courage presently and went round to Adrian, who, after a few whispered words, deliberately rose and accompanied him out of the room, shrugging. When they had gone, Lady Blandish said to the baronet: "He is not coming."
"To-morrow, then, if not tonight," he replied. "But I say he will come to-night."
"You do really wish to see him united to his wife?"
The question made the baronet raise his brows with some displeasure.
"Can you ask me?"
"I mean," said, the ungenerous woman, "your System will require no further sacrifices from either of them?"
When he did answer, it was to say: "I think her altogether a superior person. I confess I should scarcely have hoped to find one like her."