You"ve told me so yourself."
"I should like to show it to you. I would make you like it."
"I"m not sure what you"d make me do," she went on very honestly.
"Nothing you don"t want."
"I"m sure you"d try," she smiled as for more accommodation.
"Well," said Jackson Lemon, "I"m after all trying now."
To this she returned that she must go to her mother, and he was obliged to lead her out of the place. Lady Canterville was not immediately found, so that he had time to keep it up a little as they went. "Now that I"ve spoken I"m very happy."
"Perhaps you"re happy too soon."
"Ah, don"t say that, Lady Barb," he tenderly groaned.
"Of course I must think of it."
"Of course you must!" Jackson abundantly concurred. "I"ll speak to your father to-morrow."
"I can"t fancy what he"ll say."
"How can he dislike me? But I guess he doesn"t!" the young man cried in a tone which Lady Beauchemin, had she heard him, would have felt connected with his general retreat upon the quaint. What Lady Beauchemin"s sister thought of it is not recorded; but there is perhaps a clue to her opinion in the answer she made him after a moment"s silence: "Really, you know, you _are_ a foreigner!" With this she turned her back, for she was already in her mother"s hands. Jackson Lemon said a few words to Lady Canterville; they were chiefly about its being very hot. She gave him her vague sweet attention, as if he were saying something ingenious but of which she missed the point. He could see she was thinking of the ways of her daughter Agatha, whose att.i.tude toward the contemporary young man was wanting in the perception of differences-a madness too much without method; she was evidently not occupied with Lady Barb, who was more to be depended on. This young woman never met her suitor"s eyes again; she let her own rest rather ostentatiously on other objects. At last he was going away without a glance from her. Her mother had asked him to luncheon for the morrow, and he had said he would come if she would promise him he should see his lordship. "I can"t pay you another visit till I"ve had some talk with him."
"I don"t see why not, but if I speak to him I daresay he will be at home," she returned.
"It will be worth his while!" At this he almost committed himself; and he left the house reflecting that as he had never proposed to a girl before he couldn"t be expected to know how women demean themselves in this emergency. He had heard indeed that Lady Barb had had no end of offers; and though he supposed the number probably overstated, as it always is, he had to infer that her way of appearing suddenly to have dropped him was but the usual behaviour for the occasion.
III
At her mother"s the next day she was absent from luncheon, and Lady Canterville mentioned to him-he didn"t ask-that she had gone to see a dear old great-aunt who was also her G.o.dmother and who lived at Roehampton. Lord Canterville was not present, but Jackson learned from his hostess that he had promised her he would come in exactly at three o"clock. Our young man lunched with her ladyship and the children, who appeared in force at this repast, all the younger girls being present, and two little boys, the juniors of the two sons who were in their teens.
Doctor Lemon, who was fond of children and thought these absolutely the finest in the world-magnificent specimens of a magnificent brood, such as it would be so satisfactory in future days to see about his own knee-Doctor Lemon felt himself treated as one of the family, but was not frightened by what he read into the privilege of his admission. Lady Canterville showed no sense whatever of his having mooted the question of becoming her son-in-law, and he believed the absent object of his attentions hadn"t told her of their evening"s talk. This idea gave him pleasure; he liked to think Lady Barb was judging him for herself.
Perhaps indeed she was taking counsel of the old lady at Roehampton: he saw himself the sort of lover of whom a G.o.dmother would approve.
G.o.dmothers, in his mind, were mainly a.s.sociated with fairy-tales-he had had no baptismal sponsors of his own; and that point of view would be favourable to a young man with a great deal of gold who had suddenly arrived from a foreign country-an apparition surely in a proper degree elfish. He made up his mind he should like Lady Canterville as a mother-in-law; she would be too well-bred to meddle. Her husband came in at three o"clock, just after they had risen, and observed that it was very good in him to have waited.
"I haven"t waited," Jackson replied with his watch in his hand; "you"re punctual to the minute."
I know not how Lord Canterville may have judged his young friend, but Jackson Lemon had been told more than once in his life that he would have been all right if he hadn"t been so literal. After he had lighted a cigarette in his lordship"s "den," a large brown apartment on the ground-floor, which partook at once of the nature of an office and of that of a harness-room-it couldn"t have been called in any degree a library or even a study-he went straight to the point in these terms: "Well now, Lord Canterville, I feel I ought to let you know without more delay that I"m in love with Lady Barb and that I should like to make her my wife." So he spoke, puffing his cigarette, with his conscious but unextenuating eyes fixed on his host.
No man, as I have intimated, bore better being looked at than this n.o.ble personage; he seemed to bloom in the envious warmth of human contemplation and never appeared so faultless as when most exposed. "My dear fellow, my dear fellow," he murmured almost in disparagement, stroking his ambrosial beard from before the empty fireplace. He lifted his eyebrows, but looked perfectly good-natured.
"Are you surprised, sir?" Jackson asked.
"Why I suppose a fellow"s surprised at any one"s wanting one of his children. He sometimes feels the weight of that sort of thing so much, you know. He wonders what use on earth another man can make of them."
And Lord Canterville laughed pleasantly through the copious fringe of his lips.
"I only want one of them," said his guest, laughing too, but with a lighter organ.
"Polygamy would be rather good for the parents. However, Luke told me the other night she knew you to be looking the way you speak of."
"Yes, I mentioned to Lady Beauchemin that I love Lady Barb, and she seemed to think it natural."
"Oh I suppose there"s no want of nature in it! But, my dear fellow, I really don"t know what to say," his lordship added.
"Of course you"ll have to think of it." In saying which Jackson felt himself make the most liberal concession to the point of view of his interlocutor; being perfectly aware that in his own country it wasn"t left much to the parents to think of.
"I shall have to talk it over with my wife."
"Well, Lady Canterville has been very kind to me; I hope she"ll continue."
Lord Canterville pa.s.sed a large fair hand, as for inspiration, over his beard. "My dear fellow, we"re excellent friends. No one could appreciate you more than Lady Canterville. Of course we can only consider such a question on the-a-the highest grounds. You"d never want to marry without knowing-as it were-exactly what you"re doing. I, on my side, naturally, you know, am bound to do the best I can for my own poor child. At the same time, of course, we don"t want to spend our time in-a-walking round the horse. We want to get at the truth about him."
It was settled between them after a little that the truth about Lemon"s business was that he knew to a certainty the state of his affections and was in a position to pretend to the hand of a young lady who, Lord Canterville might say without undue swagger, had a right to expect to do as well as any girl about the place.
"I should think she had," Doctor Lemon said. "She"s a very rare type."
His entertainer had a pleasant blank look. "She"s a clever well-grown girl and she takes her fences like a gra.s.shopper. Does she know all this, by the way?"
"Oh yes, I told her last night."
Again Lord Canterville had the air, unusual with him, of sounding, at some expense of precious moments, the expression of face of a visitor so unacquainted with shyness. "I"m not sure you ought to have done that, you know."
"I couldn"t have spoken to you first-I couldn"t," said Jackson Lemon. "I meant to; but it stuck in my crop."
"They don"t in your country, I guess," his lordship amicably laughed.
"Well, not as a general thing. However, I find it very pleasant to have the whole thing out with you now." And in truth it was very pleasant.
Nothing could be easier, friendlier, more informal, than Lord Canterville"s manner, which implied all sorts of equality, especially that of age and fortune, and made our young man feel at the end of three minutes almost as if he too were a beautifully-preserved and somewhat straitened n.o.bleman of sixty, with the views of a man of the world about his own marriage. Jackson perceived that Lord Canterville waived the point of his having spoken first to the girl herself, and saw in this indulgence a just concession to the ardour of young affection. For his lordship seemed perfectly to appreciate the sentimental side-at least so far as it was embodied in his visitor-when he said without deprecation: "Did she give you any encouragement?"
"Well, she didn"t box my ears. She told me she"d think of it, but that I must speak to you. Naturally, however, I shouldn"t have said what I did if I hadn"t made up my mind during the last fortnight that I"m not disagreeable to her."
"Ah, my dear young man, women are odd fish!" this parent exclaimed rather unexpectedly. "But of course you know all that," he added in an instant; "you take the general risk."
"I"m perfectly willing to take the general risk. The particular risk strikes me as small."
"Well, upon my honour I don"t really know my girls. You see a man"s time in England is tremendously taken up; but I daresay it"s the same in your country. Their mother knows them-I think I had better send for their mother. If you don"t mind," Lord Canterville wound up, "I"ll just suggest that she join us here."
"I"m rather afraid of you both together, but if it will settle it any quicker-!" Jackson said. His companion rang the bell and, when a servant appeared, despatched him with a message to her ladyship. While they were waiting the young man remembered how easily he could give a more definite account of his pecuniary basis. He had simply stated before that he was abundantly able to marry; he shrank from putting himself forward as a monster of money. With his excellent taste he wished to appeal to Lord Canterville primarily as a gentleman. But now that he had to make a double impression he bethought himself of his millions, for millions were always impressive. "It strikes me as only fair to let you know that my fortune"s really considerable."
"Yes, I daresay you"re beastly rich," said Lord Canterville with a natural and visible faith.
"Well, I represent, all told, some seven millions."
"Seven millions?"
"I count in dollars. Upwards of a million and a half sterling."