Read "Adela Cathcart. Volume I" by George MacDonald online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Five o'clock, anxiously expected by me, came, and with it the announcement of dinner. I think those of us who were in the secret would have hurried over it, but with Beeves hanging upon our wheels, we could not. However, at length we were all in the drawing-room, the ladies of the house evidently surprised that we had come up stairs so soon. Besides the curate, with his wife and brother, our party comprised our old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bloomfield, whose previous engagement had been advanced by a few days.
When we were all seated, I began, as if it were quite a private suggestion of my own: