“Possibly, Mrs. Carr, possibly; at present all that I see is that you have had a great opportunity, and have failed to avail yourself of it. My only consolation is that the loss will be yours, and my only regret is that I have had the trouble of coming to this place for nothing. However, there is a ship due to-morrow, and I shall sail in her.”
“I am sorry to have been the cause of bringing you here, Lord Minster, and still more sorry that you should feel obliged to cut short your stay. Good-bye, Lord Minster; we part friends, I hope?”
“Oh, certainly, Mrs. Carr. I wish you a very good morning, Mrs. Carr,” and his lordship marched out of Mildred’s life.
“There goes my chance of becoming the wife of a prime minister, and making a figure in history,” said that lady, as she watched his tall figure stalking stiffly down the avenue. “Well, I am glad of it. I would just as soon have married a speech-making figure-head stuffed full of the purest Radical principles.”
On the following day Arthur met Lady Florence again in the town.
“Where have you been to, Lady Florence?” he said.
“To see my brother off,” she answered, without any signs of deep grief.
“What, has he gone already?”
“Yes; your friend Mrs. Carr has been too many for poor James.”
“What! do you mean that he has been proposing?”