"
"If I were in your place I would not use him as you do: it _is_ a shame,
Julia."
"It is not you who are sentenced to be buried alive, Nellie. I dare not
look forward: I dread it more and more--"
"Of course. That is the effect of Cecil's ill-judged visit and Mary
Burleigh's foolish letter. Pray, don't say so to mamma; it would be
enough to lay her up for a week."
Julia shut her eyes and sighed greatly. "Fashionable marriages are
advertised with the tag of 'no cards;' you will have to announce mine as
'under chloroform.' Nellie, I never can go through with it," was her
cry.
"Oh, Julia," remonstrated her sister, "don't say that. If you throw over
Mr. Brotherton, half our friends will turn their backs upon us. We have
been wretchedly poor, but we have always been well thought of."
Miss Julia Gardiner's brief joy passed in a thunder-shower of passionate
tears.
It was not intended that the rebuff Mr. Cecil Burleigh had received
from Miss Fairfax should be generally known even by his friends, but it
transpired nevertheless, and was whispered as a secret in various
Norminster circles. Buller heard it, but was incredulous when he saw the
new member in his visual spirits; Mrs. Stokes guessed it, and was
astonished; Lady Angleby wrote about it to Lady Latimer with a petition
for advice, though why Lady Latimer should be regarded as specially
qualified to advise in affairs of the heart was a mystery.
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