'Your question has been answered by Lady Lesbia. She left a note for you,' replied Lady Maulevrier.
'Thanks,' answered Mr. Hammond, briefly, and he hurried from the room without another word.
The letter was on the table in his bedroom. He had little hope of any good waiting for him in a letter so written. The dowager and the world had triumphed over a girl's dawning love, no doubt.
This was Lesbia's letter:
'Dear Mr. Hammond,—Lady Maulevrier desires me to say that the
proposal which you honoured me by making this morning is one which I
cannot possibly accept, and that any idea of an engagement between
you and me could result only in misery and humiliation to both. She
thinks it best, under these circumstances, that we should not again
meet, and I shall therefore have left Fellside before you receive