Lady Amaldina stared at him, not knowing in the least what he meant.
"You are so droll," she said. "You never, I think, think of the position you were born to fill."
"Oh yes, I do. I"m a man, and I think a great deal about it."
"But you"ve got to be Marquis of Kingsbury, and Llwddythlw has got to be Duke of Merioneth. He never forgets it for a moment."
"What a nuisance for him,--and for you."
"Why should it be a nuisance for me? Cannot a woman understand her duties as well as a man?"
"Quite so, if she knows how to get a glimpse at them."
"I do," said Lady Amaldina, earnestly. "I am always getting glimpses at them. I am quite aware of the functions which it will become me to perform when I am Llwddythlw"s wife."
"Mother of his children?"
"I didn"t mean that at all, Hampstead. That"s all in the hands of the Almighty. But in becoming the future d.u.c.h.ess of Merioneth--"
"That"s in the hands of the Almighty, too, isn"t it?"
"No; yes. Of course everything is in G.o.d"s hands."
"The children, the dukedom, and all the estates."
"I never knew any one so provoking," she exclaimed.
"One is at any rate as much as another."
"You don"t a bit understand me," she said. "Of course if I go and get married, I do get married."
"And if you have children, you do have children. If you do,--and I hope you will,--I"m sure they"ll be very pretty and well behaved.
That will be your duty, and then you"ll have to see that Llwddythlw has what he likes for dinner."
"I shall do nothing of the kind."
"Then he"ll dine at the Club, or at the House of Commons. That"s my idea of married life."
"Nothing beyond that? No community of soul?"
"Certainly not."
"No!"
"Because you believe in the Trinity, Llwddythlw won"t go to heaven.
If he were to take to gambling and drinking you wouldn"t go to the other place."
"How can you be so horrid."
"That would be a community of souls,--as souls are understood. A community of interests I hope you will have, and, in order that you may, take care and look after his dinner." She could not make much more of her cousin in the way of confidence, but she did exact a promise from him, that he would be in attendance at her wedding.
A few days afterwards he returned to Hendon Park, leaving his sister to remain for a fortnight longer at Castle Hautboy.
CHAPTER XV.
MARION FAY AND HER FATHER.
"I saw him go in a full quarter of an hour since, and Marion Fay went in before. I feel quite sure that she knew that he was expected."
Thus spoke Clara Demijohn to her mother.
"How could she have known it," asked Mrs. Duffer, who was present in Mrs. Demijohn"s parlour, where the two younger women were standing with their faces close to the window, with their gloves on and best bonnets, ready for church.
"I am sure she did, because she had made herself smarter than ever with her new brown silk, and her new brown gloves, and her new brown hat,--sly little Quaker that she is. I can see when a girl has made herself up for some special occasion. She wouldn"t have put on new gloves surely to go to church with Mrs. Roden."
"If you stay staring there any longer you"ll both be late," said Mrs.
Demijohn.
"Mrs. Roden hasn"t gone yet," said Clara, lingering. It was Sunday morning, and the ladies at No. 10 were preparing for their devotions.
Mrs. Demijohn herself never went to church, having some years since had a temporary attack of sciatica, which had provided her with a perpetual excuse for not leaving the house on a Sunday morning. She was always left at home with a volume of Blair"s Sermons; but Clara, who was a clever girl, was well aware that more than half a page was never read. She was aware also that great progress was then made with the novel which happened to have last come into the house from the little circulating library round the corner. The ringing of the neighbouring church bell had come to its final tinkling, and Mrs.
Duffer knew that she must start, or disgrace herself in the eyes of the pew-opener. "Come, my dear," she said; and away they went. As the door of No. 10 opened so did that of No. 11 opposite, and the four ladies, including Marion Fay, met in the road. "You have a visitor this morning," said Clara.
"Yes;--a friend of my son"s."
"We know all about it," said Clara. "Don"t you think he"s a very fine-looking young man, Miss Fay?"
"Yes, I do," said Marion. "He is certainly a handsome young man."
"Beauty is but skin deep," said Mrs. Duffer.
"But still it goes a long way," said Clara, "particularly with high birth and n.o.ble rank."
"He is an excellent young man, as far as I know him," said Mrs.
Roden, thinking that she was called upon to defend her son"s friend.
Hampstead had returned home on the Sat.u.r.day, and had taken the earliest opportunity on the following Sunday morning to go over to his friend at Holloway. The distance was about six miles, and he had driven over, sending the vehicle back with the intention of walking home. He would get his friend to walk with him, and then should take place that conversation which he feared would become excessively unpleasant before it was finished. He was shown up to the drawing-room of No. 11, and there he found all alone a young woman whom he had never seen before. This was Marion Fay, the daughter of Zachary Fay, a Quaker, who lived at No. 17, Paradise Row. "I had thought Mrs. Roden was here," he said.
"Mrs. Roden will be down directly. She is putting her bonnet on to go to church."
"And Mr. Roden?" he asked. "He I suppose is not going to church with her?"
"Ah, no; I wish he were. George Roden never goes to church."
"Is he a friend of yours?"
"For his mother"s sake I was speaking;--but why not for his also? He is not specially my friend, but I wish well to all men. He is not at home at present, but I understood that he will be here shortly."