At any rate, if he were to go off, his friends
would have the satisfaction of remembering that all had been done
that could be; so saying, Dr. X. took his fee, and Surgeons Y. and Z.
prevented his conduct from being singular.
Now began the operations on the Grafton side. A letter from Lady
Aphrodite full of distraction. She was fairly mystified. What could
have induced Lucy suddenly to act so, puzzled her, as well it might. Her
despair, and yet her confidence in his Grace, seemed equally great. Some
talk there was of going off to Cleve at once. Her husband, on the whole,
maintained a rigid silence and studied coolness. Yet he had talked of
Vienna and Florence, and even murmured something about public disgrace
and public ridicule. In short, the poor lady was fairly worn out, and
wished to terminate her harassing career at once by cutting the Gordian
knot. In a word, she proposed coming on to her admirer and, as she
supposed, her victim, and having the satisfaction of giving him his
cooling draughts and arranging his bandages.
If the meeting between the young Duke and Sir Lucius Grafton had been
occasioned by any other cause than the real one, it is difficult to say
what might have been the fate of this proposition.
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