"Will you allow Min to become engaged to me?" I said, valiantly,
plunging at once into the thick of the combat.
"Pray, Mr Lorton," she replied, ignoring my query, "what means have you
for supporting a wife? People cannot live upon nothing, you know; and
`love in a cottage' is an exploded fallacy."
She spoke as lightly and pleasantly as if she were conversing upon some
ordinary society topic with another lady of the world like herself. She
very well knew what she was about, however. She was "developing her
main attack"--as military strategists would say!
You see, I had never given the subject of ways and means an instant's
consideration, having remitted the matter to Providence with that
implicit trust and cheerful hopefulness to which most enraptured swains
are prone. I had only thought of loving Min and being loved by her:--
engagement naturally following between us; and, that, was all I had
thought of as yet.
When the time came for us to be married, our guardian angels would, no
doubt, take care to provide us with the wherewithal!
"Sufficient for the day" was "the evil thereof." Till then, I was quite
satisfied to let the matter rest; living, for the present, in the fairy
land of my imagination where such a thing as filthy lucre was undreamt
of.
Mrs Clyde's inquiry, therefore, took me all aback. "What means had I
for supporting a wife?" Really, it was a very uncalled-for remark!
I had to answer it, nevertheless. Of course I could only tell the
truth.
"I've only got two hundred and fifty pounds a-year of my own at present,
Mrs Clyde," I said; "but--"
"Two--hundred--a-year!"--she said, interrupting me ere I could finish my
statement, placing a horribly sneering emphasis on each word, which made
the sum mentioned appear so paltry and insignificant, that it struck me
with shame.--"I beg your pardon--two hundred and fifty! Why, how
_young_ you are, Mr Lorton. Do you really think you could support a
wife and establishment on that income? I thought you were joking, my
dear young friend,"--she added--"you know it would barely pay your
tailor's bill!"
And she looked at me from head to foot with her merciless quizzing eyes,
taking in all the elaborateness of the apparel that I had donned for her
personal subjugation.
"You have not heard me out, Mrs Clyde," I answered, spurred upon my
mettle.--"I am not quite dependent on that income. I also write for the
press!"
I said this quite grandly, on the strength of my contributing an
occasional magazine article at stray intervals to one of the current
periodicals--getting one accepted for every dozen that were "declined
with thanks;" and, being the "musical critic" of a very weakly weekly!
"O-oh, indeed!" she exclaimed.
There was a most aggravating tone of pity mingled with her surprise.
She evidently now looked upon me as more presumptuous than ever, and
hopelessly beyond the pale of her social circle!
"And how much,"--she asked, in a patronising way which galled me to the
quick,--"do you derive from this source? That is, if you will kindly
excuse my saying so? The proposal which you have done my daughter and
myself the honour to suggest, necessitates my making such delicate
inquiries, you know."
"I do not earn very much by my pen, as yet, Mrs Clyde," I
answered--"but, I hope to do more in a little time, when my name gets
recognised. I'm only a beginner as yet."
"Well, if you would take my advice, Mr Lorton, you would remain so.
I've heard it frequently said by some of your penny-a-liners--I believe
that is what you literary gentlemen call yourselves--that, authorship
reaps very poor pay. It makes a very good stick, but a bad crutch; and
I don't think you can expect to increase your income very largely from
that quarter! The only author I ever knew personally, sank into it,
poor fellow, because he could do nothing else; and, _he_ led a wretched
existence from hand to mouth! He was never recognised afterwards in
society, of course!"
"Genius is not always acknowledged at first, Mrs Clyde," I said
loftily.
Her sneers at the profession, which I regarded as one of the highest in
the world, provoked me.