Yet it seemed as though this could be avoided in no
other way but by marrying my persecutor, a man whom I had reason to hate
and who had shown himself to be such an unchivalrous bully. About this
time--that is shortly before the Hunt Ball--rumours had got about the
neighbourhood that I was going to marry Lord Painswick. He was certainly
paying me a good deal of attention, and I fancy Dick would have liked
the match, but I could not bring myself to care for Painswick, and indeed
his courtship only added to my other worries.
"But Clement Henshaw heard the rumour and it had naturally the effect of
rousing his wretched pursuit of me to greater activity. He vowed with
brutal vehemence that I should not marry Painswick, and declared that
when our engagement was announced he would tell him the story he had
against me. That in itself did not trouble me much since I had no
intention of marrying Painswick; still the man's relentless persecution
was getting more than I could bear.
"I now come to the night of the Hunt Ball. For some days previously I had
seen or heard nothing of Henshaw, and had even begun to hope that
something might have happened to make the man abandon his line of
conduct.
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