VERY CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION
When Lockwood returned, only in time to dress for dinner, Walpole, whose
room adjoined his, threw open the door between them and entered. He had
just accomplished a most careful ‘tie,’ and came in with the air of one
fairly self-satisfied and happy.
‘You look quite triumphant this evening,’ said the major, half sulkily.
‘So I am, old fellow; and so I have a right to be. It’s all done and
settled.’
‘Already?’
‘Ay, already. I asked her to take a stroll with me in the garden; but we
sauntered off into the plantation. A woman always understands the exact
amount of meaning a man has in a request of this kind, and her instinct
reveals to her at once whether he is eager to tell her some bit of fatal
scandal of one of her own friends, or to make her a declaration.’
A sort of sulky grunt was Lockwood’s acknowledgment of this piece of
abstract wisdom--a sort of knowledge he never listened to with much
patience.
‘I am aware,’ said Walpole flippantly, ‘the female nature was an omitted
part in your education, Lockwood, and you take small interest in those nice
distinctive traits which, to a man of the world, are exactly what the stars
are to the mariner.’
‘Finding out what a woman means by the stars does seem very poor fun.’
‘Perhaps you prefer the moon for your observation,’ replied Walpole; and
the easy impertinence of his manner was almost too much for the other’s
patience.
‘I don’t care for your speculations--I want to hear what passed between you
and the Greek girl.’
‘The Greek girl will in a very few days be Mrs. Walpole, and I shall crave
a little more deference for the mention of her.’
‘I forgot her name, or I should not have called her with such freedom! What
is it?’
‘Kostalergi. Her father is Kostalergi, Prince of Delos.’
‘All right; it will read well in the _Post_.’
‘My dear friend, there is that amount of sarcasm in your conversation this
evening, that to a plain man like myself, never ready to reply, and easily
subdued by ridicule, is positively overwhelming. Has any disaster befallen
you that you are become so satirical and severe?’
‘Never mind _me_--tell me about yourself,’ was the blunt reply.
‘I have not the slightest objection. When we had walked a little way
together, and I felt that we were beyond the risk of interruption, I led
her to the subject of my sudden reappearance here, and implied that she,
at least, could not have felt much surprise. “You remember,” said I, “I
promised to return?”
‘“There is something so conventional,” said she, “in these pledges, that
one comes to read them like the ‘yours sincerely’ at the foot of a letter.”
‘“I ask for nothing better,” said I, taking her up on her own words, “than
to be ‘yours sincerely.’ It is to ratify that pledge by making you ‘mine
sincerely’ that I am here.”
‘“Indeed!” said she slowly, and looking down.
‘“I swear it!” said I, kissing her hand, which, however, had a glove on.’
‘Why not her cheek?’
‘That is not done, major mine, at such times.’
‘Well, go on.’
‘I can’t recall the exact words, for I spoke rapidly; but I told her I was
named Minister at a foreign Court, that my future career was assured, and
that I was able to offer her a station, not, indeed, equal to her deserts,
but that, occupied by her, would be only less than royal.’
‘At Guatemala!’ exclaimed the other derisively.
‘Have the kindness to keep your geography to yourself,’ said Walpole. ‘I
merely said in South America, and she had too much delicacy to ask more.’
‘But she said Yes? She consented?’
‘Yes, sir, she said she would venture to commit her future to my charge.’
‘Didn’t she ask you what means you had? what was your income?’
‘Not exactly in the categorical way you put it, but she alluded to the
possible style we should live in.’
‘I’ll swear she did. That girl asked you, in plain words, how many hundreds
or thousands you had a year?’
‘And I told her. I said, “It sounds humbly, dearest, to tell you we shall
not have fully two thousand a year; but the place we are going to is the
cheapest in the universe, and we shall have a small establishment of not
more than forty black and about a dozen white servants, and at first only
keep twenty horses, taking our carriages on job.”’
‘What about pin-money?’
‘There is not much extravagance in toilet, and so I said she must manage
with a thousand a year.’
‘And she didn’t laugh in your face?’
‘No, sir! nor was there any strain upon her good-breeding to induce her to
laugh in my face.’
‘At all events, you discussed the matter in a fine practical spirit. Did
you go into groceries? I hope you did not forget groceries?’
‘My dear Lockwood, let me warn you against being droll. You ask me for a
correct narrative, and when I give it, you will not restrain that subtle
sarcasm the mastery of which makes you unassailable.’
‘When is it to be? When is it to come off? Has she to write to His Serene
Highness the Prince of What’s-his-name?’
‘No, the Prince of What’s-his-name need not be consulted; Lord Kilgobbin
will stand in the position of father to her.’
Lockwood muttered something, in which ‘Give her away!’ were the only words
audible. ‘I must say,’ added he aloud, ‘the wooing did not take long.’
‘You forget that there was an actual engagement between us when I left this
for London. My circumstances at that time did not permit me to ask her at
once to be my wife; but our affections were pledged, and--even if more
tender sentiments did not determine--my feeling, as a man of honour,
required I should come back here to make her this offer.’
‘All right; I suppose it will do--I hope it will do; and after all, I take
it, you are likely to understand each other better than others would.’
‘Such is our impression and belief.’
‘How will your own people--how will Danesbury like it?’
‘For their sakes I trust they will like it very much; for mine, it is less
than a matter of indifference to me.’
‘She, however--she will expect to be properly received amongst them?’
‘Yes,’ cried Walpole, speaking for the first time in a perfectly natural
tone, divested of all pomposity. ‘Yes, she stickles for that, Lockwood. It
was the one point she seemed to stand out for. Of course I told her she
would be received with open arms by my relatives--that my family would be
overjoyed to receive her as one of them. I only hinted that my lord’s gout
might prevent him from being at the wedding. I’m not sure Uncle Danesbury
would not come over. “And the charming Lady Maude,” asked she, “would she
honour me so far as to be a bridesmaid?”’
‘She didn’t say that?’
‘She did. She actually pushed me to promise I should ask her.’
‘Which you never would.’
‘Of that I will not affirm I am quite positive; but I certainly intend to
press my uncle for some sort of recognition of the marriage--a civil note;
better still, if it could be managed, an invitation to his house in town.’
‘You are a bold fellow to think of it.’
‘Not so bold as you imagine. Have you not often remarked that when a man of
good connections is about to exile himself by accepting a far-away post,
whether it be out of pure compassion or a feeling that it need never
be done again, and that they are about to see the last of him; but,
somehow--whatever the reason--his friends are marvellously civil and polite
to him, just as some benevolent but eccentric folk send a partridge to the
condemned felon for his last dinner.’
‘They do that in France.’
‘Here it would be a rumpsteak; but the sentiment is the same. At all
events, the thing is as I told you, and I do not despair of Danesbury.’
‘For the letter, perhaps not; but he’ll never ask you to Bruton Street,
nor, if he did, could you accept.’
‘You are thinking of Lady Maude.’
‘I am.’
‘There would be no difficulty in that quarter. When a Whig becomes Tory, or
a Tory Whig, the gentlemen of the party he has deserted never take umbrage
in the same way as the vulgar dogs below the gangway; so it is in the
world. The people who must meet, must dine together, sit side by side
at flower-shows and garden-parties, always manage to do their hatreds
decorously, and only pay off their dislikes by instalments. If Lady Maude
were to receive my wife at all, it would be with a most winning politeness.
All her malevolence would limit itself to making the supposed underbred
woman commit a _gaucherie_, to do or say something that ought not to have
been done or said; and, as I know Nina can stand the test, I have no fears
for the experiment.’
A knock at the door apprised them that the dinner was waiting, neither
having heard the bell which had summoned them a quarter of an hour before.
‘And I wanted to hear all about your progress,’ cried Walpole, as they
descended the staircase together.
‘I have none to report,’ was the gruff reply.
‘Why, surely you have not passed the whole day in Kearney’s company without
some hint of what you came here for?’
But at the same moment they were in the dining-room.
‘We are a man party to-day, I am sorry to say,’ cried old Kearney, as
they entered. ‘My niece and my daughter are keeping Miss O’Shea company
upstairs. She is not well enough to come down to dinner, and they have
scruples about leaving her in solitude.’
‘At least we’ll have a cigar after dinner,’ was Dick’s ungallant reflection
as they moved away.