Gatherum was rather a trouble than otherwise.
He had ever felt it to be so, but had nevertheless always kept it
open perhaps for a month in the year. His uncle had always resided
there for a fortnight at Christmas. When Silverbridge was married
it would become the young man's duty to do something of the same
kind. Gatherum was the White Elephant of the family, and
Silverbridge must enter it upon his share of the trouble. He did
not know that in saying all this he was offering his son as a
husband to Lady Mabel, but she understood it as thoroughly as
though he had spoken the words.
But she knew the son's mind also. He had indeed himself told her
all his mind. 'Of course I love her best of all,' he had said.
When he told her of it she had been so overcome that she had wept
in her despair;--had wept in his presence. She had declared to him
her secret,--that it had been her intention to become his wife, and
then he had rejected her! It had all been shame, and sorrow, and
disappointment to her. And she could not but remember that there
had been a moment when she might have secured him by a word.
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