"
"She means," said Lady Ashton, turning to Bucklaw, "she expects an
answer to the demand which she has made upon the man at Vienna, or
Ratisbon, or Paris--or where is he?--for restitution of the engagement
in which he had the art to involve her. You will not, I am sure, my dear
friend, think it is wrong that she should feel much delicacy upon this
head; indeed, it concerns us all."
"Perfectly right--quite fair," said Bucklaw, half humming, half speaking
the end of the old song--
"It is best to be off wi' the old love
Before you be on wi' the new.
But I thought," said he, pausing, "you might have had an answer six
times told from Ravenswood. D--n me, if I have not a mind to go fetch
one myself, if Miss Ashton will honour me with the commission."
"By no means," said Lady Ashton; "we have had the utmost difficulty of
preventing Douglas, for whom it would be more proper, from taking so
rash a step; and do you think we could permit you, my good friend,
almost equally dear to us, to go to a desperate man upon an errand so
desperate? In fact, all the friends of the family are of opinion, and my
dear Lucy herself ought so to think, that, as this unworthy person has
returned no answer to her letter, silence must on this, as in other
cases, be held to give consent, and a contract must be supposed to be
given up, when the party waives insisting upon it.
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