You don't want a green-eyed adventuress."
I bent down and wrote steadily to Lady Katherine. I would be there about
six o'clock, I said, and thanked her in my best style.
"If I let you go, it is only for the time," Mr. Carruthers said as I
signed my name. "I _intend_ you to marry me--do you hear?"
"Again I say, 'Qui vivre verra!'" I laughed and rose with the note in my
hand.
Lord Robert looked almost ready to cry when I told him I was off in the
afternoon.
"I shall see you again," he said. "Lady Katherine is a relation of my
aunt's husband, Lord Merrenden. I don't know her myself, though."
I do not believe him. How can he see me again? Young men do talk a lot
of nonsense!
"I shall come over on Wednesday to see how you are getting on," Mr.
Carruthers said. "Please do be in."
I promised I would, and then I came up-stairs.
And so it has come to an end, my life at Branches. I am going to start a
new phase of existence, my first beginning as an adventuress!
How completely all one's ideas can change in a few days! This day three
weeks ago Mrs. Carruthers was alive. This day two weeks ago I found
myself no longer a prospective heiress, and only three days ago I was
contemplating calmly the possibility of marrying Mr. Carruthers; and
now, for heaven, I would not marry any one! And so, for fresh woods and
pastures new! Oh, I want to see the world, and lots of different human
beings; I want to know what it is makes the clock go round--that great
big clock of life.
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