""You have something to tell me. Who is it that is likely to enter into an early marriage! certainly it is not me."
""No indeed, I have little fear of that, but they have been forcing the subject on me since I came home. Why cannot people allow a family to rest in peace. I have never seen that he cared so much for the girl."
""Of whom are you speaking?" I asked.
""Of my son and Miss Eaton."
""Is he then engaged to her?"
""I do not understand it, but the General seems confident that it will soon come about. The Eatons are enormously wealthy, you know, and Lucy is an only child."
""But what of that? There is no need that Mr. Harrington should make a mercenary marriage. Are not you rich, and is not he an only son?"
""Why how sharply you speak, Mabel. I never observed your voice so shrill before," exclaimed the lady, lifting up her two delicate hands as if to ward off a disagreeable sound. "Upon my word I think we are all getting cross. When I told the General how much better I should like you,--that is, how much better I did like you than that pretty thing with the blue eyes, he asked me if I was willing to betray the young creature thrown into our protection, by giving her wealth into the hands of my own son, whom I knew--"
"She checked herself and turned her face from me like a guilty child.
""When you knew that he did not like me?" I questioned, controlling myself.
""No, no, he did not say that. Who could help liking you, Mabel? It was love he was talking about. She said it would be treacherous to let him entangle you for your money, when I was sure that he looked upon you only as a sister. I said that we were not sure of that by any means.
Indeed, sometimes it had seemed to me--Oh Mabel, how wild you look. I did not say a thing to wound your delicacy. There is not a lady in the land who might not be proud of any preference James Harrington can give.
I only thought that General Harrington was mistaken. As for my James liking or marrying anybody for her money, the idea made me quite beside myself. It is not often that I get out of temper, but this really made me angry."
""No wonder," I said, "It was unkind indeed in the General to speak of me in that way."
""No, no, you quite misunderstand again. General Harrington is incapable of unkindness. As for indelicacy, a more perfect gentleman never lived.
His sensitive honor was touched. You are his ward, beautiful, young, rich. James is his step-son, without a dollar of his own, wholly dependent on the General--"
""But I thought the property came from his father." I said this so abruptly that it brought the color into Mrs. Harrington"s face, and sent the hot blood into my own.
""So it did, but my husband loved me dearly, and in his will gave every dollar to me; knowing, he said, that I would be generous with our only child; and so I have been, Mabel. The General is liberal to a fault.
James never wants for money."
""But he is a man now, and dependence must be irksome."
""Oh, he is not dependent; that feeling is impossible with a man like the General. James knows well enough that the whole property will be his when my husband has done with it--that is made sure in my will; first the General, then my son. I should be a wretched woman else."
""I am sure you will do right in the end," I said.
""I had thought at one time that the property was so large and had increased so much in value, that it would be well to divide it and give James half; but the General fancied that it might take him too much away from us--that he might get to speculate or want to go into business,--a thing none of the Harringtons ever had stooped to, and we decided to put it off. James felt a little hurt, I know, but it was all for his own good, and because his society is so dear to us."
"I think the woman was in earnest, and had no idea how unjust she seemed in thus withholding the natural inheritance of her son, in behalf of the man she had married. The whole thing disturbed me, all the more because I dared not speak out the revolt of my own feelings. Mrs. Harrington saw this in my face, I dare say, and began to apologise about troubling me with family matters.
""Here, I came to have a little chat about that girl Lucy, and we have branched off into discussions on money, the last thing on earth that I ever care to think about," she said. "Now tell me, do you think that she is so very pretty?"
""Yes," I answered, "very pretty. I have seldom seen anything more delicately beautiful."
"I spoke the truth, in spite of all the bitter feelings which the few last days had engendered. That girl"s beauty was so patent that even prejudice must acknowledge it. Nay, in my determination to be just, her perfections were perhaps a little exaggerated.
""There, I think you are wrong, Mabel. I have seen fifty prettier girls even of her own type--necks like lilies, cheeks like the lip of a sea sh.e.l.l, and golden hair. But I like coloring, depth, richness. Now in my estimation you are fifty times more beautiful than Lucy Eaton, and I know James thinks so in spite of the General"s belief about that girl."
""Oh, Mrs. Harrington, how partial and how kind you are."
""Well, I should like to have any one look at you now, and say if I am wrong. Why, no peach was ever so richly crimsoned as your cheeks this moment, and as for the eyes, Mabel, you have splendid eyes! That was the first thing James told me when I asked about you; "purplish gray," he said, with such curling lashes, their glance is something to remember when she looks up."
""Did Mr. Harrington say this?"
""Indeed he did, and a great deal more. Upon my word, Mabel, I think he was taken with you then."
""I am sure you are mistaken. We scarcely exchanged a dozen words."
""But James has his eyes."
""I must not trust my ears when you flatter so sweetly," I said.
""Well, the truth is, Mabel, I am a little disappointed. My heart, I may as well own it, was set on having you for a daughter-in-law, and I wont believe it quite impossible yet. General Harrington is so nice in his sense of honor, but women care nothing about business, and the idea of refusing a n.o.ble young fellow because you have money, is just ridiculous, especially as my son will have plenty by and by, don"t you think so."
""It would be where love existed, certainly," I answered, ready to cast myself into this woman"s arms, and tell her all that was stirring in my heart.
""Ah, it is a pity that you could not have fancied him," she answered, "seeing it would have saved him from this choice which General Harrington approves so much; but I cannot believe it yet."
""But the General should know."
""I hope not, I hope not. The truth is, dear, I never could like the girl, and as for her mother, the very idea of a connection with her makes me shiver."
""She certainly is not a pleasant woman," I said.
""Pleasant! but we will not talk of her. Mercy! that is her voice, let me escape.""
CHAPTER XLII.
A DUKE IN THE HOUSE.
"Mrs. Harrington gathered up the cloud-like drapery of her white dress, and glided out of the room. She was certainly a lovely woman, sweet and gentle as a child, with nerve and energy, too, as I afterwards found out; but that night she had wounded me terribly, and I was glad to see her go.
"I sat down on the couch when quite alone, and covering my face with both hands, struggled hard to free the tears that weighed down my heart.
It seemed that some wrong had been done me,--that the whole Harrington family was in league to break up my life before it had really commenced.
But I could not shed a tear, a keen sense of shame kept me from the relief of weeping. Shame that I, a young girl, should suffer thus from a knowledge of another"s happiness. Yes, I was bitterly ashamed, and shut my face out from the mirror before me, afraid to look upon my own humiliation. Did they know it? Had that aristocratic old man guessed at my weakness, and sent his wife there to convince me how hopeless it was?
Not directly--not in any way that she could recognise as a mission; that was impossible to a woman so sensitive, but was she not the unconscious instrument of his keener penetration?
"While I was tormenting myself with these fears, Mrs. Eaton came in, swinging her lilac parasol, and with her rich lace shawl trailing to the ground.
""Oh, I have come to tell you one must have confidence in some persons, or the heart would give out, you know. Guess who it was that Lucy and I met in the Court of Oranges, just now."