Mrs. Evelyn could only answer as she would once have answered Jock,
and on these terms he went. In the meantime Sydney had rejected the
honourable young rector of the next parish, and was in the course of
administering rebuffs to the county member, who was so persuaded that
he and Miss Evelyn were the only fit match for one another, that no
implied negative was accepted by him. Her brother, whom he was
coaching in his county duties, was far too much inclined to bring him
home to luncheon; and in the clash and crisis, without any one's
quite knowing how it happened, it turned out that Mrs. Evelyn had
been so imprudent as to sanction an attachment between her daughter
and that great lout of a young doctor, Lady Fordham's brother! Not
only the M.P., but all the family shook the head and bemoaned the
connection, for though it was to be a long engagement and a great
secret, everybody found it out. Lucas had long made up his mind that
so it would end, and told his mother that it was a relief the crisis
had come. He put a good face on it, wrung his cousin's hand with the
grasp of a Hercules, observed "Well done, old Monk," and then made
the work for his final examination a plea for being so incessantly
occupied as to avoid all private outpourings.
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