“Good heavens, Deb, is the man out of his senses?” demanded Lady Bellingham.
“By no means! He is merely stupid, and rude, and altogether abominable! I hate him! I wish I might never set eyes on him again!”
“But what did he do?” asked Lady Bellingham bewildered.
Miss Grantham ground her white teeth. “He came to rescue his precious cousin from my toils! That was why he invited me to drive out with him. To insult me!”
“Oh dear, you thought it might be that!” said her aunt sadly.
Miss Grantham paid no heed to this interruption. “A Grantham is not a fit bride for Lord Mablethorpe! To marry me would be to ruin himself! Oh, I could scream with vexation!”
Lady Bellingham regarded her doubtfully. “But you said much yourself, my dear. I remember distinctly—”
“It doesn’t signify in the least,” said Miss Grantham. “He hi no right to say it”
Lady Bellingham agreed to this wholeheartedly, after watching her niece pace round the room for several minutes, ventured to inquire what had happened during the course of the drive. Miss Grantham stopped dead her tracks, and replied in a shaking voice: “He tried to bribe me!”
“Tried to bribe you not to marry Adrian, Deb?” asked her aunt. “But how very odd of him, when you had never the lea intention of doing so! What can have put such a notion in his head?”