Lady Arthur asked George to return with her to Garscube Hall, but he said he could not possibly do so. Then she said she had told Miss Adamson and Alice that she would bring him with her, and they would be disappointed. "Tell them," he said, "that I have very little time to spare, and I must spend it with Frank, when I am sure they will excuse me." They excused him, but they were not the less disappointed, all the three ladies; indeed, they were so much disappointed that they did not speak of the thing to each other, as people chatter over and thereby evaporate a trifling defeat of hopes. Mr. Eildon left his cousin only to visit his mother and sisters for a day, and then returned to London; from which it appeared that he was not excessively anxious to visit Garscube Hall. But everything there went on as usual. The ladies painted, they went excursions, they wrote ballads; still, there was a sense of something being amiss--the heart of their lives seemed dull in its beat. The more Lady Arthur thought of having sent away such a matrimonial prize from her house, the more she was chagrined; the more Miss Garscube tried not to think of Mr. Eildon, the more her thoughts would run upon him; and even Miss Adamson, who had nothing to regret or reproach herself with, could not help being influenced by the change of atmosphere. Lady Arthur's thoughts issued in the resolution to re-enter society once more; which resolution she imparted to Miss Adamson in the first instance by saying that she meant to go to London next season. "Then our plan of life here will be quite broken up," said Miss A. "Yes, for a time." "I thought you disliked society?" "I don't much like it: it is on account of Alice I am going. I may just as well tell you: I want to bring her and George together again if possible." "Will she go if she knows that is your end?" "She need not know." "It is not a very dignified course," Miss Adamson said. "No, and if it were an ordinary case I should not think of it." "But you think him a very ordinary man?" "A duke is different. Consider what an amount of influence Alice would have, and how well she would use it; and he may marry a vain, frivolous, senseless woman, incapable of a good action. Indeed, most likely, for such people are sure to hunt him." "I would not join in the hunt," said Miss Adamson. "If he is the man you suppose him to be, the wound his self-love got will have killed his love; and if he is the man I think, no hunters will make him their prey. A small man would know instantly why you went to London, and enjoy his triumph." "I don't think George would: he is too simple; but if I did not think it a positive duty, I would not go. However, we shall see: I don't think of going before the middle of January." Positive duties can be like the animals that change color with what they feed on. VI.