"
It is impossible to tell how much of the love story of the girl whom he
proposed to make his wife was known to young Baldoon. Possibly he had
had it lightly sketched to him by Lady Stair's skilled hand, as a mere
girlish fancy, likely to be very soon past and already entirely on the
wane. In any case, Baldoon evidently saw no more difficulties in the way
of his nuptials than did Lord and Lady Stair. The fact that the bride
"canna thole the man" must ever be a purely secondary consideration in
such matrimonial arrangements. Meantime the unhappy bride-elect had the
scheme laid before her, and in spite of her sobbing protests, was
commanded to conform to the wishes of her parents.
The news of Lady Stair's triumph was not long in coming to Lord
Rutherfurd's ears, and he at once wrote to Janet Dalrymple to remind her
that she was pledged to him by everything that they both considered
holy. No reply came from the unhappy girl, but a letter from Lady Stair
informed the distracted lover that her daughter was fully sensible of
the grave fault of which she had been guilty in entering into an
engagement without the sanction of her parents, and that she now
retracted her vows, and was about to give her hand to Mr. David Dunbar
of Baldoon.
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