Page:Ethel Churchill 3.pdf/54

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52
ETHEL CHURCHILL.

Miss Churchill, and tell her; but I claim the privilege of being told all about it as we go."

"I may as well use Trevanion's own words," replied Sir George. "'I have no choice,' said he, gazing, despairingly, in the glass: 'one heart I must break. Now that of Miss Churchill being at a distance, and that of Mademoiselle de Nargis being at my side, the last is most important—I married this morning. Let my lovely Ethel know the fact as gently as possible: lay the blame on fate, not on my falsehood. Tell her, if she die, her memory will be enshrined in my heart.'"

"That certainly was a consolation," said Lady Marchmont. "The fact is, that the marriage between Mr. Trevanion and Miss Churchill was a family affair, arranged without the slightest regard to the young lady's feelings, which Mr. Trevanion well knew were interested by another."

A sudden turn in the walk brought them face to face with Lord Marchmont and Ethel, to whom the countess whispered a few words