CHAPTER XIX 



effie's business 



This was Mr Dashwood's letter to Miss Grim- 

 shaw, received and read by her on Monday morning : 



" You must have thought me mad, but when 

 you know all you will think differently. I hope 

 to explain things when the business about the 

 horse is over. Till then I will not see you or Mr 

 French. I cannot write more now, for my hands 

 are tied." 



Mr French also received a letter by the same 

 post, which ran: 



My dear French, — When at the Shelbourne 

 Hotel in DubHn I agreed to come down to Drum- 

 gool House as your guest you said to me frankly 

 and plainly that, with regard to a certain young 

 lady, you would give me ' a fair field and no favour.' 

 You intimated that you yourself had ideas in that 

 quarter, but that you would do nothing and say 

 nothing till the lady herself had a full opportunity 

 for deciding in her own mind — or, at least, for seeing 



more of us. I undertook not to rush things and 



207 



