Gerard Maule, as the reader has been informed, wrote three lines to his dearest Adelaide to inform her that his father would not assent¹ to the suggestion respecting Maule Abbey which had been made by Lady Chiltern, and then took no further steps in the matter. In the fortnight next after the receipt of his letter nothing was heard of him at Harrington Hall, and Adelaide, though she made no complaint, was unhappy. Then came the letter from Mr Spooner — with all its rich offers, and Adelaide’s mind was for a while occupied with wrath² against her second suitor. But as the egregious³ folly⁴ of Mr Spooner — for to her thinking the aspirations⁵ of Mr Spooner were egregiously⁶ foolish — died out of her mind, her thoughts reverted⁷ to her engagement. Why did not the man come to her, or why did he not write?

She had received from Lady Chiltern an invitation to remain with them — the Chilterns — till her marriage. “But, dear Lady Chiltern, who knows when it will be?” Adelaide had said. Lady Chiltern had good-naturedly replied that the longer it was put off the better for herself. “But you’ll be going to London or abroad before that day comes.” Lady Chiltern declared that she looked forward to no festivities which could under any circumstances remove her four-and-twenty hours travelling distance from the kennels⁸. Probably she might go up to London for a couple of months as soon as the hunting was over, and the hounds had been drafted, and the horses had been coddled, and every covert⁹ had been visited. From the month of May till the middle of July she might, perhaps, be allowed to be in town, as communications by telegram could now be made day and night. After that, preparations for cub-hunting would be

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