SECOND THOUGHTS
Though Miss Lang was shocked and indignant at Mrs. Morton's violence, she
was a wise woman, and felt that it would be better tact not to let such a
person depart without an attempt at pacification; so she did her best at
dignified soothing, and listened to a good deal of grumbling and
lamentation.
She contrived, however, to give the impression that as things stood, Mrs.
Morton would be far wiser to make no more resistance, but to consult
family peace by accepting Miss Marshall, who, she assured the visitor,
was a very kind and excellent person, not likely to influence Lord
Northmoor against his own family, except on great provocation.
Mrs. Morton actually yielded so far as to declare she had only spoken for
her dear brother-in-law's own good, and that since he was so infatuated,
she supposed, for her dear children's sake, she must endure it. Having
no desire to encounter him again, she went off by the next train, leaving
a message that she had had tea at Miss Lang's. She related at home to
her expectant daughter that Lord Northmoor had grown 'that high and
stuck-up, there was no speaking to him, and that there Miss Marshall was
an artful puss, as knew how to play her cards and get _in_ with the
quality.'
'I wish you had taken me, ma,' said Ida, 'I should have known what to say
to them.'
'I can't tell, child, you might only have made it worse. I see how it is
now, and we must be mum, or it may be the worse for us. He says he will
do what he can for us, but I know what that means. She will hold the
purse-strings, and make him meaner than he is already. He will never
know how to spend his fortune now he has got it! If your poor, dear pa
had only been alive now, he would never have let you be wronged.'
'But you gave it to them?' cried Ida.
'That I did! Only that lady, Lady Kenton, came in all stuck-up and
haughty, and cut me short, interfering as she had no business to, or I
would have brought Miss Mary to her marrow-bones. She hadn't a word to
say for herself, but now she has got those fine folks on her side, the
thing will go on as sure as fate. However, I've done my dooty, that's
one comfort; and now, I suppose I shall have to patch it up as best I
can.'
'I wouldn't!' said Ida hotly.
'Ah, Ida, my dear, you don't know what a mother won't do for her
children.'
A sigh that was often reiterated as Mrs. Morton composed a letter to her
brother-in-law, with some hints from Ida on the spelling, and some from
Mr. Rollstone on the address. The upshot was that her dear brother and
his _fiancee_ were to believe her actuated by the purest sense of the
duty and anxiety she owed to them and her dear children, the orphans of
his dear deceased brother. Now that she had once expressed herself, she
trusted to her dear Frank's affectionate nature to bury all in oblivion,
and to believe that she should be ready to welcome her new sister-in-law
with the warmest affection. Therewith followed a request for five
pounds, to pay for her mourning and darling Ida's, which they had felt
due to him!
Lord Northmoor did not quite see how it was due to him, nor did he intend
to give whatever his dear sister-in-law might demand, but she had made
him so angry that he felt that he must prove his forgiveness to himself.
Mary had not thought it needful to describe the force of the attack upon
herself, or perhaps his pardon might not have gone so far. He sent the
note, and added that as he was wanted at Northmoor for a day or two, he
would take his nephew Herbert with him.
This was something like, as Mrs. Morton said, a kind of tangible
acknowledgment of their relationship and of Herbert as his heir, and it
was a magnificent thing to tell all her acquaintances that her son was
gone to the family seat with his uncle, Lord Northmoor. She would fain
have obtained for him some instructions in the manners of the upper ten
thousand from Mr. Rollstone, but Herbert entirely repudiated listening to
that old fogey, observing that after all it was only old Frank, and he
wasn't going to bother himself for the like of him.
The uncle was fond of his brother's boy, and had devised this plan partly
for the sake of the pleasure it would give, and partly because it was
impossible to form any judgment of his character while with the mother.
He was a fine, well-grown, manly boy, and when seen among his companions,
had an indefinable air of good blood about him. He had hitherto been at
a good day-school which prepared boys for the merchant service, and his
tastes were so much in the direction of the sea, that it was much to be
regretted that at fourteen and a half it was useless to think of
preparation for a naval cadetship. He was sent up by train to join his
uncle at Hurminster, and the first question after the greeting was, 'I
say, uncle, shan't you have a yacht?'
'I could not afford it, if I wished it,' was the answer, while _Punch_
was handed over to him, and Lord Northmoor applied himself to a long blue
letter.
'Landlubber!' sighed Herbert to himself, with true marine contempt for a
man who had sat on an office-stool all his life. 'He doesn't look a bit
more of a swell than he used to. It is well there's some one with some
pluck in the family.'