A Radical Arrangement Read Online Free

your summerhouse? No, you immediately assumed the worst, as you supposedly ‘moral’ people always do, and cried, ‘Unhand my daughter.’ Well, your narrow-mindedness is simply not my responsibility. You will do as you please, of course, but if I were you, I would tell the gossips the truth. Miss Mayfield tripped and fell, and I was trying to help her.”
    “Only an idiot would believe that,” sputtered Mayfield.
    “Indeed?” Sir Justin eyed him with icy contempt. “From what I have seen of your friends, that should cause no difficulty. Good evening.” He turned on his heel and went out, leaving Ralph Mayfield speechless with shock and outrage.
    In the meantime, upstairs, Mrs. Mayfield had been talking somewhat incoherently to her daughter. Margaret was not feeling well. Her head hurt abominably, it was very late, and she wanted to sleep. And she was still emotionally shaken by her supposed ordeal in the garden. These things, combined with Mrs. Mayfield’s rambling monologue, prevented her from understanding what her mother was talking about for quite a time. At last, however, when she lamented, “To have to marry such a man,” for the fourth time, Margaret’s eyes widened.
    “What are you talking about, Mama?”
    Mrs. Mayfield wrung her hands. “About Sir Justin, dear. It pains me terribly to give you to such a man. I thought your future, such a different future, so admirably settled, and now this .”
    “I don’t understand.” Margaret tried to sit up straighter on her pillows but sank back with a moan, putting a hand to her injured head.
    Her mother looked surprised. “But what else have we been talking of this half hour? You must marry Sir Justin now, of course, after what happened. It is dreadful, but—”
    “ M-marry ,” Margaret gasped. She stared at her mother in horror.
    “I know you cannot like it, dear, but—”
    “ Like it? I cannot do it. I never want to see him again as long as I live! He is horrible, despicable. I am afraid of him.”
    “He is certainly not the sort of man we would have chosen for you. But after what happened tonight, we have no choice. You are compromised, Margaret. You must marry him.”
    “Mama, I cannot . I…I hate him.”
    “I understand your feelings. He has acted in a way even I would not have expected. When you are married, however, he must treat you with that…”
    Despite the pain, Margaret struggled upright. “Mama, you cannot mean this. You are not serious. You could not make me marry that man, after what he did to me.”
    Mrs. Mayfield shook her head mournfully. “I wish I need not, Margaret. But you must understand that this incident has destroyed your reputation. To be seen in such a compromising position by a number of people, practically strangers. The story will be common property in a week. The only way to scotch it is with a marriage. Your father’s political position…”
    “ His position? What about mine? How could I live as his wife?”
    “You might have thought of that before you slipped away alone with him,” retorted her mother, who was becoming incensed with Margaret’s unusual resistance. Her daughter had never before opposed her will.
    “Slipped away?” Margaret gazed at her in outrage.
    “Well, dear, you know that such behavior only encourages the kind of insult you received tonight. Sir Justin was in the wrong, of course, but he could not have, er, interfered with you if you had not given him the opportunity.”
    For an instant Margaret almost felt guilty for having dropped back from the group after dinner, then a quite unaccustomed rage rose in her docile breast. “That isn’t true!” she cried. “I did not give him any opportunities. I did nothing . And I will never marry him. I hate him.”
    “Margaret, do not talk to me in that tone.” Mrs. Mayfield was more startled than alarmed at her daughter’s defiance.
    “I won’t marry him. I won’t .” Margaret buried her head in her pillows.
    Her mother started to