"What sort?"
"Russia leather."
"There, mamma!" Antoinette exclaimed. "Isn"t that Mrs. Mowbray all over?
When a morocco one, or a canvas one, would have done just as well."
"As I said," returned Mrs. Busby. "Mrs. Mowbray does not know what to do with money. When are you going travelling, Rotha?"
"I do not know. Some time in my life, I suppose."
"What a ridiculous thing to give her!" pursued Antoinette.
"Yes, I think so," her mother echoed. "Do not let yourself be deluded, Rotha, by presents of travelling bags or anything else. Your future life is not likely to be spent in pleasuring. What I can do for you in the way of giving you an education, will be all I can do; then you will have to make a living and a home for, yourself; and the easiest way you can do it will be by teaching. I shall tell Mrs. Mowbray to educate you for some post in which perhaps she can put you by and by; she or somebody else. So pack up your expectations; you will not need to do much of other sorts of packing."
"You forget there is another person to be consulted, aunt Serena."
"What other person?" said Mrs. Busby raising her head and fixing her observant eyes upon Rotha.
"Mr. Southwode."
"Mr. Southwode!" repeated the lady coldly. "I am ignorant what a stranger like him has to say about our family affairs."
"He is not a stranger," said Rotha hotly. "He is the person I know best in the world, and love best. He is the person to whom I belong; that mother left me to; and it is for him, not for you, to say what I shall do, or what I shall be."
Imprudent Rotha! But pa.s.sion is always imprudent.
"Very improper language!" said Mrs. Busby coldly. "When a young lady speaks so of a young gentleman, what are we to think?"
"I am not a young lady," said Rotha; "and he is not a young gentleman; at least, not very young; and you may think the truth, which is what I say."
"Do you mean that you have arranged to marry Mr. Southwode?" said the lady, fixing her keen little eyes upon Rotha"s face.
Rotha"s face flamed, with mingled indignation and shame; she deigned no answer.
"She doesn"t speak, mamma," said Antoinette mischievously. "You may depend, that"s the plan. Rotha and Mr. Southwode! I declare, that"s too good! So that"s the arrangement!"
"I am so ashamed that I cannot speak to you," said Rotha in her pa.s.sion and humiliation. "How can you say such wicked things! I wish Mr.
Southwode was here to give you a proper answer."
"What, you think he would take your part?" said her aunt.
"He always did. He would now. He will yet, aunt Serena."
"That is enough!" said Mrs. Busby, becoming excited a little on her part.
"Hush, Antoinette; I will have no more of this very unedifying conversation. But you, Rotha, may as well know that you will never see Mr. Southwode again. He is engaged in England with the affairs of his father"s business; he will probably soon marry; and then there is no chance whatever that he will ever return to America. So you had best consider whether it is worth while to offend the friends you have left, for the sake of one who is nothing to you any more."
"I know Mr. Southwode better than that," was Rotha"s answer. But the girl"s face was purple with honest shame.
"You expect he will come back and make you his wife?" said Mrs. Busby scornfully.
"I expect he will come back and take care of me. You might as well talk of his making that p.u.s.s.y cat his wife. I am just a poor girl, and no more. But he will take care of me. I know he will, if I have to wait ten years first."
"How old are you now?"
"Sixteen, almost."
"Then in ten years you will be twenty six. My dear, there is only one way in which Mr. Southwode could take care of you then; he must make you his wife, or leave it to somebody else to take care of you. He knows that as well as I do; and so he put you in my hands. Now let us make an end of this disgraceful scene. Before ten years are past, you will probably be the wife of somebody else. All this talk is very foolish."
Rotha thought it _was_, but also thought the fault was not in her part of it. She sat glowing with confusion; she felt as if the blood would verily start through her skin; and angry in proportion. Still she was silent, though Antoinette laughed.
"What a farce, mamma! To think of Rotha being in love with Mr.
Southwode!"
"Hold your tongue, Nettie."
"To love, and to be in love, are two things," said Rotha hotly. "I do not know what being in love means; I _do_ know the other."
"O mamma!--she doesn"t know what it means!"
"I told you to be quiet, Antoinette."
"I didn"t hear it, mamma. But I think you might reprove Rotha for saying what is not true."
"That is what I never do," said Rotha.
Mrs. Busby here interfered, and ordered Rotha to go up stairs to her room and stay there till she could command herself. Rotha went.
"Mamma," said Antoinette then, "I do believe it is earnest about her and Mr. Southwode. In her mind, I mean. Did you see how she coloured?"
"I should not be at all surprised," said, Mrs. Busby.
"When is he coming back, mamma?"
"I cannot say. I think he does not know himself. He writes that he is very busy at present."
"But he will come back, you think?"
"He says so. Antoinette, say nothing--not a word more--about him to Rotha. She has got her head turned, and it is best she should hear nothing whatever about him. I shall take good care that she never sees him again."
"Mamma, _he_ don"t care for her?"
"Of course not. He is too much a man of the world."
There was silence.
"Mamma," Antoinette began after a pause, "do you think Rotha is handsome?"
"She is very well," said Mrs. Busby in an indifferent tone.