Mrs. Atterbury had declined to authorise the visit
to Harrington Hall, and then Adelaide had pleaded her age and
independence. She was her own mistress if she so chose to call
herself, and would not, at any rate, remain in Florence at the
present moment to receive the attentions of Signor Brudi. Of the
previous winter she had passed three months with some relatives in
England, and there she had learned to ride to hounds, had first met
Gerard Maule, and had made acquaintance with Lady Chiltern. Gerard
Maule had wandered to Italy after her, appearing at Florence in his
desultory way, having no definite purpose, not even that of asking
Adelaide to be his wife,--but still pursuing her, as though he wanted
her without knowing what he wanted. In the course of the Spring,
however, he had proposed, and had been almost accepted. But Adelaide,
though she would not yield to her sister, had been frightened. She
knew that she loved the man, and she swore to herself a thousand
times that she would not be dictated to by her sister;--but was she
prepared to accept the fate which would at once be hers were she now
to marry Gerard Maule? What could she do with a man who had no ideas
of his own as to what he ought to do with himself?
Lady Chiltern was in favour of the marriage.
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