Lord Mablethorpe and Miss Laxton instinctively held hands for mutual support. “Oh no, do not say so!” implored Phoebe. “He will soon forget me!”
“Do not let him deceive you, my unhappy child!” said Miss Grantham. “He will cast you aside as he has cast me! Oh, to think that I should have given my poor heart to a rake!”
“Deb!” exclaimed his lordship, horrified. “I’m not! Indeed, I’m not! And you never said you would marry me! It is not as though—”
“My whole life is blighted!” said Miss Grantham, in a hollow voice. “I shall very likely go into a decline!”
“Deb!” said his lordship, in quite a different voice. “Well, upon my word! Deb, if you don’t stop this instant, I’ll—I’ll shake you!”
Miss Grantham raised her head, and mopped her streaming eyes. “Oh Adrian, you foolish boy!” she said. “What in the world did you think I threw you together for, if not for this? I never had the least intention of marrying you!”
This disclosure astonished Miss Laxton so much that she was quite unable to do more than gaze at her hostess. Lord Mablethorpe, however, drew a sigh of heartfelt relief, and grinned. “It’s just like you to roast me! Somehow, I could not help thinking that you did not care for me. But I have behaved very badly to you, and I know it.”
“My poor boy, I fear that it is you who have been the victim. Don’t give it another thought! I wish you both very happy, and I am sure you were made for one another. Indeed, I feel that I have made up an unexceptionable match between you! We have now only to consider what is to be done next.”
Miss Laxton, recovering from her stupor, cast herself upon Deborah’s bosom, crying: “Oh, you are so good to me! I feel so dreadfully at having done such a thing! How can you not wish to marry him?”
“It is very bad taste on my part, indeed,” admitted Miss Grantham. “Perhaps I was born to be a spinster. But do not let us talk about me, for I shall do very well, I assure you. We must decide what is best to be done with you. Your parents can have no objection, I imagine, to your marriage with Adrian.”