第139章

The message was given to Lady Mary after so solemn a fashion that she was sure that some important communication was to be made to her. Her mind at that moment had been filled with her new friend's story. She felt that she required some time to meditate before she could determine what she herself would wish; but when she was going to her own room, in order that she might think it over, she was summoned to Lady Cantrip. 'My dear,' said the Countess, 'I wish you to do something to oblige me.'

'Of course I will.'

'Lord Popplecourt wants to speak to you.'

'Who?'

'Lord Popplecourt.'

'What can Lord Popplecourt have to say to me?'

'Can you not guess? Lord Popplecourt is a young nobleman, standing very high in the world, possessed of ample means, just in that position in which it behoves such a man to look about for a wife.' Lady Mary pressed her lips together, and clenched her two hands. 'Can you not imagine what such a gentleman may have to say?' Then there was a pause, but she made no immediate answer.

'I am to tell you, my dear, that your father would approve of it.'

'Approve of what?'

'He approves of Lord Popplecourt as a suitor for your hand.'

'How can he?'

'Why not, Mary? Of course he has made it his business to ascertain all particulars as to Lord Popplecourt's character and property.'

'Papa knows that I love somebody else.'

'My dear Mary, that is all vanity.'

'I don't think that papa can want to see me married to a man when he knows that with all my heart and soul--'

'Oh, Mary!'

'When he knows,' continued Mary, who would not be put down, 'that I love another man with all my heart. What will Lord Popplecourt say if I tell him that? If he says anything to me, I shall tell him. Lord Popplecourt! He cares for nothing but his coal mines.

Of course, if you bid me to see him I will; but it can do no good.

I despise him, and if he troubles me I shall hate him. As for marrying him,--I would sooner die this minute.'

After this Lady Cantrip did not insist on the interview. She expressed her regret that things should be as they were,--explained in sweetly innocent phrases that in a certain rank of life young ladies could not always marry the gentlemen to whom their fancies might attach them, but must, not infrequently, postpone their youthful inclinations to the will of their elders,--or in less delicate language, that though they might love in one direction the must marry in another; and then expressed a hope that her dear Mary would think over these things and try to please her father.

'Why does he not try to please me?' said Mary. Then Lady Cantrip was obliged to see Lord Popplecourt, a necessity which was a great nuisance to her. 'Yes;--she understands what you mean. But she is not prepared for it yet. You must wait awhile.'

'I don't see why I am to wait.'

'She is very young,--and so are you, indeed. There is plenty of time.'

'There is somebody else I suppose.'

'Is it that Tregear?'

'I am not prepared to mention names,' said Lady Cantrip, astonished that he should know so much. 'But indeed you must wait.'

'I don't see it, Lady Cantrip.'

'What can I say more? If you think that such a girl as Lady Mary Palliser, the daughter of the Duke of Omnium, possessed of fortune, beauty, and every good gift, is to come like a bird to your call, you will find yourself mistaken. All that her friends can do for you will be done. The rest must remain with yourself.'

During that evening Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to make himself pleasant to one of the FitzHoward young ladies, and on the next morning he took his leave of Custins.

'I will never interfere again in reference to anybody else's child as long as I live,' Lady Cantrip said to her husband that night.

Lady Mary was very much tempted to open her heart to Miss Boncassen. It would be delightful to have a friend; but were she to engage Miss Boncassen's sympathies on her behalf, she must of course sympathise with Miss Boncassen in return. And what if, after all, Silverbridge were not devoted to the American beauty!

What if it should turn out that he was going to marry Lady Mabel Grex? 'I wish you would call me Isabel,' her friend said to her.

'It is so odd,--since I have left New York I have never heard my name from any lips except father's and mother's.'

'Has not Silverbridge ever called you by your christian-name?'

'I think not. I am sure he never has.' But he had, though it had passed by her at the moment without attention. 'It all came from him so suddenly. And yet I expected it. But it was too sudden for christian-names and pretty talk. I do not even know what his name is.'

'Plantagenet,--but we always call him Silverbridge.'

'Plantagenet is much prettier. I shall always call him Plantagenet. But I recall that. You will not remember that against me?'

'I will remember nothing that you do not wish.'

'I mean that if,--if all the grandeurs of the Pallisers could consent to put up with poor me, if heaven were opened to me with a straight gate, so that I could walk out of our republic into your aristocracy with my head erect, with the stars and stripes waving proudly will I had been accepted into the shelter of the Omnium griffins,--then I would call him--'

'There's one Palliser would welcome you.'

'Would you dear? The I will love you dearly. May I call you Mary?'

'Of course you may.'

'Mary is the prettiest name under the sun. But Plantagenet is so grand! Which of the kings did you branch off from?'

'I know nothing about it. From none of them I should think. There is some story about a Sir Guy, who was a king's friend. I never trouble myself about it. I hate aristocracy.'

'Do you, dear?'

'Yes,' said Mary, full of her own grievances. 'It is an abominable bondage, and I do not see that it does any good at all.'

'I think it is so glorious,' said the American. 'There is no such mischievous nonsense in the world as equality. That is what father says. What men ought to want is liberty.'