‘It must be possible, it must be,’ he said to himself as if he was trying to encourage himself.
Then, when he had no wish to think about anything except for his Castle, a letter from the tiresome woman he had met on the ship coming home told him that she was on her way.
For the moment he could not think of how he could refuse to receive her.
In fact when he then saw Lady Carisford’s carriage coming down the drive, he longed to close the gates and say that he was not at home.
However, many years of being brought up in good manners by his family made him wait in the study for the butler to formally announce her arrival.
He rose to his feet and managed to say by way of greeting,
“How nice it is to see you again, Mildred,” when he was really thinking that it was extremely annoying that s
