But it seemed that
Ashe had at last asserted himself; and if in Kitty's abrupt departure to
the country, and the sudden dissolution of the intimacy between herself
and Cliffe, those who loved her not had read what dark things they
pleased, her uncle by marriage was quite content to see in it a mere
disciplinary act on the part of the husband.
Lord Grosville believed that some rumors as to Cliffe's private
character had entered into the decisive defeat--in a constituency
largely Nonconformist--which had befallen that gentleman at the polls.
Poor Lady Tranmore! He saw her anxieties in her face, and was truly
sorry for her. At the same time, inveterate gossip that he was, he
regarded her with a kind of hunger. If she only
would talk things over
with him! So far, however, she had given him very little opening. If she
ever did, he would certainly advise her to press something like a
temporary separation on her son. Why should not Lady Kitty be left at
Haggart when the next session began? Lord Grosville, who had been a
friend of Melbourne's, recalled the early history of that great man.
When Lady Caroline Lamb had become too troublesome to a political
husband, she had been sent to Brocket.
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