“How could they be?” said Worth. “You must have forgotten one at least of them if you think that.”
She was obliged to turn away to hide her confusion. “How can you?” she demanded, in a suffocating voice.
“Don’t be alarmed,” said Worth. “I am not going to do it again yet, Clorinda. I told you, you remember, that you were not the only sufferer under your father’s Will.”
Her cousin’s warning flashed into Miss Taverner’s mind. She said coldly: “This way of talking no doubt amuses you, sir, but to me it is excessively repugnant. I did not wish to see you in order to discuss the past. That can only be forgotten. In that letter which you are holding you write that there is no possibility of your consenting to my marriage within the year of your guardianship.”
“Well, what could be plainer than that?” inquired the Earl.
“I am at a loss to understand you, sir. Certain applications have been made to you for—for permission to address me.”
“Three,” nodded his lordship. “The first was Wellesley Poole, but him I expected. The second was Claud Delabey Brown, whom I also expected. The third—now who was the third? Ah yes, it was young Matthews, was it not?”
“It does not signify, sir. What I wish you to explain is how you came to refuse these gentlemen without even the formality of consulting my wishes.”
“Do you want to marry one of them?” inquired the Earl solicitously. “I hope it is not Browne. I understand that his affairs are too pressing to allow him to wait until you are come of age.”
Miss Taverner controlled her tongue with a visible effort. “As it happens, sir, I do not contemplate marriage with any of these gentlemen,” she said. “But you had no means of knowing that when you refused them.”