After tearful inquiries about Grace, and many gentle exclamations of sorrow and wonder, she thought she would say something to Margaret about Mr. Drayton; she would be cautious. She was too timid to act upon her own conviction, she would be guided by her answer.
"Are you really engaged to Mr. Drayton, my dear Margaret, quite engaged to him?"
"But, perhaps, my dear, I could tell you something."
"You must tell me nothing," she exclaimed, quickly. "I have promised--and--you must not make it harder for me."
"But perhaps, Margaret, what I have to say may change----"
"Nothing can change things now," and Margaret spoke firmly; "I cannot go back, and he has done so much."
"It is such a miserable mistake," and poor Mrs. Dorriman thought how she could say a word, "others would do as much----"
"But Grace will not have it. No! do you think I should have consented, do you think I would consent, if it had been possible.... Oh!" she exclaimed and a look of terror came into her eyes, "even this is wrong. I should not speak of it so. Dear!" she continued, turning to poor bewildered Mrs. Dorriman, "you must help me, and not let me feel that you do not understand me. I have thought about it and prayed about it, and I must go through with it." She paused to regain her self-command, and then added, "and there is no one else."
"There is no one else," repeated Mrs. Dorriman, vaguely; "I thought there was somebody else."
Had she too seen that dawning passion which Margaret had stifled so vehemently? A burning flush rose to her face, and she answered angrily, "There is no one else."
After this Mrs. Dorriman held her peace. She wisely felt that in telling Margaret of Sir Albert's visit, and dwelling, as she intended to have dwelt upon, his anxiety to find her--she might be doing no good, and only making mischief.
Mr. Drew, the lawyer to whom Margaret wrote, was accustomed to the vaguest statements possible, made him, from time to time, by his feminine clients. But he thought that in the whole course of his experience he had never read anything so impossible to understand as poor Margaret's effusion.
He could only make out two facts. She wanted a good deal of money made safe in some way (as she had none herself), she was going to be married; then she contradicted this and said _she_ wanted no money. It was only her sister.