The fortune, she said,
was as much as Adelaide was entitled to expect, the man was a
gentleman, was tainted by no vices, and was truly in love. "You had
better let them fight it out somewhere else," Lord Chiltern had said
when his wife proposed that the invitation to Gerard Maule should be
renewed; but Lady Chiltern had known that if "fought out" at all, it
must be fought out at Harrington Hall. "We have asked him to come
back," she said to Adelaide, "in order that you may make up your
mind. If he chooses to come, it will show that he is in earnest; and
then you must take him, or make him understand that he is not to be
taken." Gerard Maule had chosen to come; but Adelaide Palliser had
not as yet quite made up her mind.
Perhaps there is nothing so generally remarkable in the conduct of
young ladies in the phase of life of which we are now speaking as the
facility,--it may almost be said audacity,--with which they do make
up their minds. A young man seeks a young woman's hand in marriage,
because she has waltzed stoutly with him, and talked pleasantly
between the dances;--and the young woman gives it, almost with
gratitude.
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