Mr Muirhead joined in. “Ha! ha! I thought that was your part of the marriage contract, Hilda? Never mind, as long as you both obey perhaps it will be better all round. That brings me to what I was going to say. For the second time I have to apologise for being unfamiliar with English etiquette. I don’t know quite what is the method of procedure in the matter of English marriages, especially when the bridegroom is an exalted person.”
Raife said laughingly, “Pardon me, Mr Muirhead, but you mean I’m an ‘exulting’ person. I’ve captured the prize of the world, and I mean to preserve it. If you will accompany me to England, I will take you to Aldborough Park, and introduce you to my mother.”
Hilda intervened: “That’s just what I’m dreading. She’ll hate me, and I feel, I know it. Then I shan’t cry, I shall just stamp, and, for the first time in my life I’ll shake my fist and say ‘I told you so.’”
This assumed outburst produced the merriment that was intended. Raife proceeded. “You’ll like my mother, Hilda, and she’ll like you. If Hilda consents,” he added, looking first at one and then the other, “we’ll be married from our town house in Mayfair. We will have a ‘real’ proper marriage, ceremony, and it shall take place at St. George’s, Hanover Square.”
“Well! We’ll leave all that until we get to Aldborough Park,” intimated the prospective father-in-law. “I’m very anxious to meet your mother, and I trust we shall be friends. I believe you, my dear Raife, when you describe your mother’s amiable disposition and charms, but I expect, with that modesty of yours, you have under-estimated the grandeur of that Tudor mansion which is also yours. Ah well, then! It’s agreed we start for England as soon as we can.”
Chapter Nineteen.
Gilda Receives a Staggering Blow.
Gilda Tempest sat in her room in her uncle’s well-appointed flat in Bloomsbury. Her face showed traces of great mental strain. There were no lines in her face, but a drawn expression, which her enemies would have called haggard. She held a copy of the Morning Post, and was reading it leisurely until her attention was attracted by a paragraph as follows: