A MOTHER-IN-LAW AND A FATHER-IN-LAW.
On the following morning Mr. Plantagenet Palliser was off upon his
political mission before breakfast;--either that, or else some
private comfort was afforded to him in guise of solitary rolls and
coffee. The public breakfast at Courcy Castle was going on at eleven
o'clock, and at that hour Mr. Palliser was already closeted with the
Mayor of Silverbridge.
"I must get off by the 3.45 train," said Mr. Palliser. "Who is there
to speak after me?"
"Well, I shall say a few words; and Growdy,--he'll expect them to
listen to him. Growdy has always stood very firm by his grace, Mr.
Palliser."
"Mind we are in the room sharp at one. And you can have a fly, for me
to get away to the station, ready in the yard. I won't go a moment
before I can help. I shall be just an hour and a half myself. No,
thank you, I never take any wine in the morning." And I may here
state that Mr. Palliser did get away by the 3.45 train, leaving
Mr. Growdy still talking on the platform. Constituents must be
treated with respect; but time has become so scarce now-a-days that
that respect has to be meted out by the quarter of an hour with
parsimonious care.
In the meantime there was more leisure at Courcy Castle. Neither
the countess nor Lady Alexandrina came down to breakfast, but their
absence gave rise to no special remark. Breakfast at the castle was
a morning meal at which people showed themselves, or did not show
themselves, as it pleased them. Lady Julia was there looking very
glum, and Crosbie was sitting next to his future sister-in-law
Margaretta, who already had placed herself on terms of close
affection with him. As he finished his tea she whispered into his
ear, "Mr. Crosbie, if you could spare half an hour, mamma would so
like to see you in her own room." Crosbie declared that he would be
delighted to wait upon her, and did in truth feel some gratitude in
being welcomed as a son-in-law into the house. And yet he felt also
that he was being caught, and that in ascending into the private
domains of the countess he would be setting the seal upon his own
captivity.
Nevertheless, he went with a smiling face and a light step, Lady
Margaretta ushering him the way. "Mamma," said she; "I have
brought Mr. Crosbie up to you. I did not know that you were here,
Alexandrina, or I should have warned him."
The countess and her youngest daughter had been breakfasting together
in the elder lady's sitting-room, and were now seated in a very
graceful and well-arranged deshabille. The tea-cups out of which they
had been drinking were made of some elegant porcelain, the teapot and
cream-jug were of chased silver and as delicate in their way. The
remnant of food consisted of morsels of French roll which had not
even been allowed to crumble themselves in a disorderly fashion,
and of infinitesimal pats of butter. If the morning meal of the two
ladies had been as unsubstantial as the appearance of the fragments
indicated, it must be presumed that they intended to lunch early.
The countess herself was arrayed in an elaborate morning wrapper of
figured silk, but the simple Alexandrina wore a plain white muslin
peignoir, fastened with pink ribbon. Her hair, which she usually
carried in long rolls, now hung loose over her shoulders, and
certainly added something to her stock of female charms. The countess
got up as Crosbie entered and greeted him with an open hand; but
Alexandrina kept her seat, and merely nodded at him a little welcome.
"I must run down again," said Margaretta, "or I shall have left
Amelia with all the cares of the house upon her."
"Alexandrina has told me all about it," said the countess, with her
sweetest smile; "and I have given her my approval. I really do think
you will suit each other very well."
"I am very much obliged to you," said Crosbie. "I'm sure at any rate
of this,--that she will suit me very well."
"Yes; I think she will. She is a good sensible girl."
"Psha, mamma; pray don't go on in that Goody Twoshoes sort of way."
"So you are, my dear. If you were not it would not be well for you
to do as you are going to do. If you were giddy and harum-scarum,
and devoted to rank and wealth and that sort of thing, it would not
be well for you to marry a commoner without fortune. I'm sure Mr.
Crosbie will excuse me for saying so much as that."
"Of course I know," said Crosbie, "that I had no right to look so
high."
"Well; we'll say nothing more about it," said the countess.
"Pray don't," said Alexandrina. "It sounds so like a sermon."
"Sit down, Mr. Crosbie," said the countess, "and let us have a
little conversation. She shall sit by you, if you like it. Nonsense,
Alexandrina,--if he asks it!"
"Don't, mamma;--I mean to remain where I am."
"Very well, my dear;--then remain where you are. She is a wilful
girl, Mr. Crosbie; as you will say when you hear that she has told
me all that you told her last night." Upon hearing this, he changed
colour a little, but said nothing. "She has told me," continued the
countess, "about that young lady at Allington. Upon my word, I'm
afraid you have been very naughty."
"I have been foolish, Lady De Courcy."
"Of course; I did not mean anything worse than that. Yes, you have
been foolish;--amusing yourself in a thoughtless way, you know, and,
perhaps, a little piqued because a certain lady was not to be won so
easily as your Royal Highness wished. Well, now, all that must be
settled, you know, as quickly as possible. I don't want to ask any
indiscreet questions; but if the young lady has really been left
with any idea that you meant anything, don't you think you should
undeceive her at once?"
"Of course he will, mamma."
"Of course you will; and it will be a great comfort to Alexandrina to
know that the matter is arranged. You hear what Lady Julia is saying
almost every hour of her life. Now, of course, Alexandrina does not
care what an old maid like Lady Julia may say; but it will be better
for all parties that the rumour should be put a stop to. If the earl
were to hear it, he might, you know--" And the countess shook her
head, thinking that she could thus best indicate what the earl might
do, if he were to take it into his head to do anything.
Crosbie could not bring himself to hold any very confidential
intercourse with the countess about Lily; but he gave a muttered
assurance that he should, as a matter of course, make known the truth
to Miss Dale with as little delay as possible. He could not say
exactly when he would write, nor whether he would write to her or to
her mother; but the thing should be done immediately on his return to
town.
"If it will make the matter easier, I will write to Mrs. Dale," said
the countess. But to this scheme Mr. Crosbie objected very strongly.
And then a few words were said about the earl. "I will tell him this
afternoon," said the countess; "and then you can see him to-morrow
morning. I don't suppose he will say very much, you know; and
perhaps he may think,--you won't mind my saying it, I'm sure,--that
Alexandrina might have done better. But I don't believe that
he'll raise any strong objection. There will be something about
settlements, and that sort of thing, of course." Then the countess
went away, and Alexandrina was left with her lover for half an hour.
When the half-hour was over, he felt that he would have given all
that he had in the world to have back the last four-and-twenty hours
of his existence. But he had no hope. To jilt Lily Dale would, no
doubt, be within his power, but he knew that he could not jilt Lady
Alexandrina De Courcy.
On the next morning at twelve o'clock he had his interview with the
father, and a very unpleasant interview it was. He was ushered into
the earl's room, and found the great peer standing on the rug, with
his back to the fire, and his hands in his breeches pockets.
"So you mean to marry my daughter?" said he. "I'm not very well, as
you see; I seldom am."
These last words were spoken in answer to Crosbie's greeting. Crosbie
had held out his hand to the earl, and had carried his point so far
that the earl had been forced to take one of his own out of his
pocket, and give it to his proposed son-in-law.
"If your lordship has no objection. I have, at any rate, her
permission to ask for yours."
"I believe you have not any fortune, have you? She's got none; of
course you know that?"
"I have a few thousand pounds, and I believe she has as much."
"About as much as will buy bread to keep the two of you from
starving. It's nothing to me. You can marry her if you like; only,
look here, I'll have no nonsense. I've had an old woman in with me
this morning,--one of those that are here in the house,--telling me
some story about some other girl that you have made a fool of. It's
nothing to me how much of that sort of thing you may have done, so
that you do none of it here. But,--if you play any prank of that kind
with me, you'll find that you've made a mistake."
Crosbie hardly made any answer to this, but got himself out of the
room as quickly as he could.
"You'd better talk to Gazebee about the trifle of money you've got,"
said the earl. Then he dismissed the subject from his mind, and no
doubt imagined that he had fully done his duty by his daughter.
On the day after this, Crosbie was to go. On the last afternoon,
shortly before dinner, he was waylaid by Lady Julia, who had passed
the day in preparing traps to catch him.
"Mr. Crosbie," she said, "let me have one word with you. Is this
true?"
"Lady Julia," he said, "I really do not know why you should inquire
into my private affairs."
"Yes, sir, you do know; you know very well. That poor young lady who
has no father and no brother, is my neighbour, and her friends are
my friends. She is a friend of my own, and being an old woman, I
have a right to speak for her. If this is true, Mr. Crosbie, you are
treating her like a villain."
"Lady Julia, I really must decline to discuss the matter with you."
"I'll tell everybody what a villain you are; I will, indeed;--a
villain and a poor weak silly fool. She was too good for you; that's
what she was." Crosbie, as Lady Julia was addressing to him the last
words, hurried upstairs away from her, but her ladyship, standing on
a landing-place, spoke up loudly, so that no word should be lost on
her retreating enemy.
"We positively must get rid of that woman," the countess, who
heard it all, said to Margaretta. "She is disturbing the house and
disgracing herself every day."
"She went to papa this morning, mamma."
"She did not get much by that move," said the countess.
On the following morning Crosbie returned to town, but just before he
left the castle he received a third letter from Lily Dale. "I have
been rather disappointed at not hearing this morning," said Lily,
"for I thought the postman would have brought me a letter. But I
know you'll be a better boy when you get back to London, and I won't
scold you. Scold you, indeed! No; I'll never scold you, not though I
shouldn't hear for a month."
He would have given all that he had in the world, three times told,
if he could have blotted out that visit to Courcy Castle from the
past facts of his existence.