Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

29. CHAPTER XXIX: THERE IS NOTHING TO TELL (continued)

'With all my heart and I hope the tunes will be good.'

'But I wish I could have been present to have heard what passed hidden, you know, behind a curtain. You won't tell me?'

'I will tell you not a word more.'

'Then I will get it out from Mrs Bunce. I'll be bound she was listening.'

'Mrs Bunce will have nothing to tell you; I do not know why you should be so curious.'

'Answer me one question at least when it came to the last, did he want to go on with it? Was the final triumph with him or with you?'

'There was no final triumph. Such things, when they have to end, do not end triumphantly.'

'And is that to be all?' 'Yes that is to be all.'

'And you say that you have no letter to write.'

'None no letter; none at present; none about this affair. Captain Aylmer, no doubt, will write to his mother, and then all those who are concerned will have been told.'

Clara Amedroz held her purpose and wrote no letter, but Mrs Askerton was not so discreet, or so indiscreet as the case might be. She did write not on that day or on the next, but before a week had passed by. She wrote to Norfolk, telling Clara not a word of her letter, and by return of post the answer came. But the answer was for Clara, not for Mrs Askerton, and was as follows:

'Plaistow Hall, April, 186

My dear Clara,