“To wait on Isabella,” she replied innocently.
“Ha!” uttered his lordship, with a harsh and bitter laugh.
Miss Wantage looked wonderingly up at him. “You don’t sound very pleased, Sherry. Would she not see you?”
“Pleased!” ejaculated his lordship. “Much I have to be pleased about!”
“I know she wouldn’t receive any of the other gentlemen, though they came all the way from London for the purpose, but I did think she would see you.”
“Well, she did,” said the Viscount shortly. “And for all the good I got by it, I might as well have stayed — Here, who told you I wanted to marry Bella?”
“You did,” answered Miss Wantage simply. “It was when you came down last year. Don’t you remember?”
“No, I can’t say that I do, but it don’t signify. She won’t have me.”
“Sherry!” cried Miss Wantage, quite shocked. “You don’t mean that you have offered, and she has refused you?”
“Yes, I do. And that’s not all!” said the Viscount, his wrongs rising forcibly to his mind. “She said my character was unsteady, and I’d no delicacy of principle! That, from a girl I’ve known all my life!”