THE LADY ENDEAVOURS TO EXPLAIN
"Sounds like the last words of a funeral sermon," muttered Mr. Ely,
directly the door was closed.
"It does sound a little that way, doesn't it?"
Then the two were still.
Mr. Ely took up the position in front of the fireplace which had been
occupied by Mr. Ash; Miss Truscott seated herself by a five-o'clock
tea-table, and pensively regarded so much of her toes as she permitted
to peep from under the hem of her dress. A considerable pause ensued.
Possibly Mr. Ely was endeavouring to find words with which to clothe
his thoughts.
"This is like a Quaker's meeting," murmured the lady.
Mr. Ely started. But he checked the retort which rose to his lips, and
continued his reflections. At last he spoke. The words issued from his
lips with excessive deliberation, as though he weighed each one to be
quite sure it was of proper weight.
"Miss Truscott, the exigencies of modern civilisation compel from man
a chivalrous attitude towards the weaker sex."
She looked up at the first sound of his voice--and he immediately
wished she would look down again.
"But there are occasions on which chivalry should give place to even
higher things."
He certainly wished she would look down again. Her countenance was
perfectly grave, but he had a horrid suspicion that there was laughter
in her eyes. She murmured something to herself.
"What was that you said?" he asked, with a sudden departure from his
air of ceremonious state.
"Nothing."
She looked down--and smiled. Mr. Ely felt that he was growing warm. He
was not a man easily put out of countenance as a rule, but this young
lady had an effect upon him which was quite unprecedented. He changed
his method of attack, and from excessive deliberation passed to
excessive haste.
"Miss Truscott, I am a plain business man."
"You are."
"The day before yesterday I asked you to be my wife."
"You did."
"You said you would."
"And immediately afterwards I changed my mind." She said this with her
sweetest smile.
"Changed your mind! What do you mean? Do you know I spent twenty
pounds on an engagement-ring?" Mr. Ely produced a little leather case
from his waistcoat pocket, and from the case a ring. "Do you see that?
Do you know I paid twenty pounds for that? And it might have cost me
forty-five."
Taking the ring, Miss Truscott slipped it on her long, slender finger.
"What a pretty ring! How well it fits me, too. I'll buy it from you if
you'll let me have it cheap."
Mr. Ely was for a moment speechless.
"Cheap! Do you think I buy engagement-rings to sell them at a profit,
then?"
"I don't know. You say you are a business man."
"Say I'm a business man! I should have to be a very funny business man
if I did that kind of thing."
Taking off the ring, Miss Truscott put it back into the case.
"Never mind, Mr. Ely; as a business man you know that a good
investment is never thrown away. If you don't meet with a good offer
for it at once it is sure to come in by and by. If you go on asking
girls to marry you, possibly in time you will light on one who will
not change her mind."
"Miss Truscott, I don't think you quite know what sort of man I am."
"You say you are a business man."
"But, excuse me, you don't seem to know what a business man is either.
A business man is a man who sticks to his own bargains, and expects
other people to stick to theirs."
"Is he, indeed. How very interesting!"
"You promised to be my wife."
"Always supposing that I did not change my mind."
"Always supposing nothing of the kind. There was no sort of
supposition even hinted at. It was as plain and unequivocal a promise
as was ever made by A to B."
"Don't you see, Mr. Ely, that you're placing me in a delicate
position?"
"In what sort of a position do you think you're placing me?"
"Would you have me marry you--now?"
"By George, I would!"
Rising from her seat, Miss Truscott placed her two hands behind her
back--in the manner in which the children do at school---and looked
him boldly in the face.
"When I love another man?--when my whole heart only beats for
him?--when, in a sense which you shall never understand, I am his, and
he is mine?"
Mr. Ely fidgeted beneath the clear scrutiny of her wide-open eyes.
"Look here, Miss Truscott, I've told you already that I am not a man
of sentiment."
"Do you call this a question of sentiment? Would you marry a woman who
frankly tells you that she loathes you, and that she yearns for
another man?"
"Loathes me, by gad! Nice thing, by George! Look here, Miss Truscott,
you promised to be my wife----"
Mr. Ely was accentuating his words by striking together the palms of
his hands, but Miss Truscott cut him short.
"Really, Mr. Ely, you are like a child. You indulge in the vainest
repetitions. I promised fiddlesticks, for all I know! I don't intend
to marry you, so there's an end of it."
"Don't you? We shall see!"
"We certainly shall see!"
"Miss Truscott, if you decline to fulfil the promise which you made to
me--according to your own confession--I go straight from here to my
solicitor and instruct him to immediately commence an action against
you for breach of promise of marriage. You will find that even a woman
is not allowed to play fast-and-loose exactly as she pleases."
"You threaten me! You dare to threaten me! Now I see the business man,
indeed! It is damages you want to mend your broken heart--the money,
not the wife. How foolish I was not to understand all that before! Can
we not compromise the case, we principals? Why should all the plunder
go into the lawyer's hands? Let me beg your acceptance of a ten-pound
note."
Miss Truscott took out her purse.
"Ten pounds!" Mr. Ely remembered the writ which he had in the pocket
of his coat. "I'll get thirty thousand pounds at least!"
"Thirty thousand pounds! What a sum am I not valued at! I am afraid,
Mr. Ely, that I am not able to treat with you when you speak of such
noble figures as that. You see, at present, my guardian has the charge
of my pecuniary affairs. But I beg you to believe that I am glad to
learn that you can find compensation even in the prospect of such a
sum as that. I had feared that your wounded affections were
incurable."
"Compensation! Oh, yes, I'll find compensation fast enough! And you
shall find it too! That letter of yours shall be produced in court.
You shall have as first rate an advertisement as ever yet a woman had.
I'll give Summers cause to be proud of his wife."
"I am so pleased to hear you speak like that, because, of course, I
hope he always will be proud of me, you know. I hope you will not put
it down to my insufferable conceit, but I don't think he's ashamed of
me, as yet. But it is quite a relief to my mind to think that we are
agreed. For we are agreed, are we not?"
"Agreed! On what?"
"On the principle of compensation."
"Oh, yes, there's no doubt that we agree on that--as you will see
directly I get back to town."
"That is most gratifying, isn't it? As we do agree now, won't you take
my hand?" Before he knew it she had her hand in his. She was looking
at him with laughter lighting all her face. "I knew that we should
understand each other after all."
And while they still stood there hand in hand, looking at each
other--but with such different expressions on their faces--the door
opened and Mr. Ash came in.