Goodwood
a note of six lines, expressing the pleasure it would give Mr.
Touchett the elder that he should join a little party at
Gardencourt, of which Miss Stackpole was a valued member. Having
sent his letter (to the care of a banker whom Henrietta suggested)
he waited in some suspense. He had heard this fresh formidable
figure named for the first time; for when his mother had mentioned
on her arrival that there was a story about the girl's having an
"admirer" at home, the idea had seemed deficient in reality and he had
taken no pains to ask questions the answers to which would involve
only the vague or the disagreeable. Now, however, the native
admiration of which his cousin was the object had become more
concrete; it took the form of a young man who had followed her to
London, who was interested in a cotton-mill and had manners in the
most splendid of the American styles. Ralph had two theories about
this intervener. Either his passion was a sentimental fiction of
Miss Stackpole's (there was always a sort of tacit understanding among
women, born of the solidarity of the sex, that they should discover or
invent lovers for each other), in which case he was not to be feared
and would probably not accept the invitation; or else he would
accept the invitation and in this event prove himself a creature too
irrational to demand further consideration.
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