‘If only my Papa was able to come with me now,’ she thought, ‘it would be exciting, but, if I go alone, it will be frightening and embarrassing, especially if the Duke has no wish to look after me as Papa has requested.’
She could hardly imagine why at the moment of his victory and now busy organising the Army of Occupation, he should take the slightest notice of her.
Yet, as her father had once said,
“Friendship is what counts ultimately in this world. The friendship of those you meet, if only for a short time, should remain with you in your mind and your heart, never to be forgotten.”
She knew her father had felt that about the Duke of Wellington.
He had known him first when he was serving in India and they had apparently become friends, although her father was much older.
He had
