'I hear,' Mrs. Eldon had written, 'from Wanley something which
really surprises me. They say that Adela Waltham is going to marry
Mr. Mutimer. The match is surely a very strange one. I am only
fearful that it is the making of interested people, and that the
poor girl herself has not had much voice in deciding her own fate.
Oh, this money! Adela was worthy of better things.'
Mrs. Eldon saw her son with surprise, the more so that she divined
the cause of his coming. When they had talked for a while, Hubert
frankly admitted what it was that had brought him.
'I must know,' he said, 'whether the news from Wanley is true'
'But can it concern you, Hubert?' his mother asked gently.
He made no direct reply, but expressed his intention of going over
to Wanley.
'Whom shall you visit, dear?'
'Mr. Wyvern.'
'The vicar? But you don't know him personally.'
'Yes, I know him pretty well. We write to each other occasionally.'
Mrs. Eldon always practised most reserve when her surprise was
greatest--an excellent rule, by-the-by, for general observation.
She looked at her son with a half-smile of wonder, but only said
'Indeed?'
'I had made his acquaintance before his coming to Wanley,' Hubert
explained.
His mother just bent her head, acquiescent. And with that their
conversation on the subject ended.
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