‘But suppose we live in London?’
‘Where?’
‘I am sure I do not know; but I should think we might get a nice little house somewhere.’
‘In a suburb! a fitting lodgment for Lady Armine. No! at any rate we will have no witnesses to our fall.’
‘But could not we try some place near my father’s?’
‘And be patronised by the great family with whom I had the good fortune of being connected. No! my dear Constance, I like your father very well, but I could not stand his eleemosynary haunches of venison, and great baskets of apples and cream-cheeses sent with the housekeeper’s duty.’
‘But what shall we do, dear Ratcliffe?’
‘My love, there is no resisting fate. We must live or die at Armine, even if we starve.’
‘Perhaps something will turn up. I dreamed the other night that dear Ferdinand married an heiress. Suppose he should? What do you think?’
‘Why, even then, that he would not be as lucky as his father. Good night, love!’
CHAPTER VII.
Containing an Unexpected Visit to London, and Its Consequences.
THE day after the conversation in the library to which Glastonbury had been an unwilling listener, he informed his friends that it was necessary for him to visit the metropolis; and as young Ferdinand had never yet seen London, he proposed that he should accompany him. Sir Ratcliffe and Lady Armine cheerfully assented to this proposition; and as for Ferdinand, it is difficult to describe the delight which the anticipation of his visit occasioned him. The three days that were to elapse before his departure did not seem sufficient to ensure the complete packing of his portmanteau: and his excited manner, the rapidity of his conversation,
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