"What does that mean?"
"It is not because of you; but from what others say about you."
"Mamma?" she asked.
"Yes; and Mr. Greenwood."
"Does he interfere?"
"I am afraid he does;--not directly with my father, but through her ladyship, who daily tells my father what the stupid old man says.
Lady Kingsbury is most irrational and hara.s.sing. I have always thought her to be silly, but now I cannot keep myself from feeling that she misbehaves herself grievously. She does everything she can to add to his annoyance."
"That is very bad."
"It is bad. He can turn Mr. Greenwood out of the house if Mr.
Greenwood becomes unbearable. But he cannot turn his wife out."
"Could he not come here?"
"I am afraid not,--without bringing her too. She has taken it into her stupid head that you and I are disgracing the family. As for me, she seems to think that I am actually robbing her own boys of their rights. I would do anything for them, or even for her, if I could comfort her; but she is determined to look upon us as enemies. My father says that it will worry him into his grave."
"Poor papa!"
"We can run away, but he can not. I became very angry when I was there, both with her ladyship and that pestilential old clergyman, and told them both pretty much what I thought. I have the comfort of knowing that I have two bitter enemies in the house."
"Can they hurt you?"
"Not in the least,--except in this, that they can teach those little boys to regard me as an enemy. I would fain have had my brothers left to me. Mr. Greenwood, and I must now say her ladyship also, are nothing to me."
It was not till after dinner that the story was told about Crocker.
"Think what I must have felt when I was told that a clerk from the Post Office wanted to see me!"
"And then that brute Crocker was shown in?" asked Hampstead.
"Do you really know him?"
"Know him! I should rather think so. Don"t you remember him at Castle Hautboy?"
"Not in the least. But he told me that he had been there."
"He never would leave me. He absolutely drove me out of the country because he would follow me about when we were hunting. He insulted me so grievously that I had to turn tail and run away from him. What did he want of me?"
"To intercede for him with George Roden."
"He is an abominable man, irrepressible, so thick-skinned that you cannot possibly get at him so as to hurt him. It is of no use telling him to keep his distance, for he does not in the least know what you mean. I do not doubt that he has left the house with a conviction that he has gained a sincere friend in you."
It was now more than a fortnight since Marion Fay had dined at Hendon, and Hampstead felt that unless he could succeed in carrying on the attack which he had commenced, any little beginning of a friendship which he had made with the Quaker would be obliterated by the length of time. If she thought about him at all, she must think that he was very indifferent to let so long a time pa.s.s by without any struggle on his part to see her again. There had been no word of love spoken. He had been sure of that. But still there had been something of affectionate intercourse which she could not have failed to recognize. What must she think of him if he allowed that to pa.s.s away without any renewal, without an attempt at carrying it further?
When she had bade him go in out of the cold there had been something in her voice which had made him feel that she was in truth anxious for him. Now more than a fortnight had gone, and there had been no renewal! "f.a.n.n.y," he said, "how would it be if we were to ask those Quakers to dine here on Christmas Day?"
"It would be odd, wouldn"t it, as they are strangers, and dined here so lately?"
"People like that do not stand on ceremony at all. I don"t see why they shouldn"t come. I could say that you want to make their acquaintance."
"Would you ask them alone?"
In that he felt that the great difficulty lay. The Fays would hardly come without Mrs. Roden, and the Rodens could not be asked. "One doesn"t always ask the same people to meet each other."
"It would be very odd, and I don"t think they"d come," said Lady Frances, gravely. Then after a pause she went on. "I fear, John, that there is more in it than mere dinner company."
"Certainly there is," he said boldly;--"much more in it."
"You are not in love with the Quaker"s daughter?"
"I rather think I am. When I have seen her three or four times more, I shall be able to find out. You may be sure of this, that I mean to see her three or four times more, and at any rate one of the times must be before I go down to Gorse Hall." Then of course she knew the whole truth. He did, however, give up the idea as to the Christmas dinner-party, having arrived at the belief, after turning the matter over in his mind, that Zachary Fay would not bring his daughter again so soon.
CHAPTER II.
MRS. RODEN"S ELOQUENCE.
On Sunday Hampstead was nervous and fidgety. He had at one time thought that it would be the very day for him to go to Holloway. He would be sure to find Mrs. Roden at home after church, and then, if he could carry things to the necessary length, he might also see Zachary Fay. But on consideration it appeared to him that Sunday would not suit his purpose. George Roden would be there, and would be sadly in the way. And the Quaker himself would be in the way, as it would be necessary that he should have some preliminary interview with Marion before anything could be serviceably said to her father.
He was driven, therefore, to postpone his visit. Nor would Monday do, as he knew enough of the manners of Paradise Row to be aware that on Monday Mrs. Vincent would certainly be there. It would be his object, if things could be made to go pleasantly, first to see Mrs. Roden for a few minutes, and then to spend as much of the afternoon as might be possible with Marion Fay. He therefore fixed on the Tuesday for his purpose, and having telegraphed about the country for his horses, groom, and other appurtenances, he went down to Leighton on the Monday, and consoled himself with a day"s hunting with the staghounds.
On his return his sister spoke to him very seriously as to her own affairs. "Is not this almost silly, John, about Mr. Roden not coming here?"
"Not silly at all, according to my ideas."
"All the world knows that we are engaged. The very servants have heard of it. That horrid young man who came from the Post Office was aware of it."
"What has all that to do with it?"
"If it has been made public in that way, what can be the object of keeping us apart? Mamma no doubt told her sister, and Lady Persiflage has published it everywhere. Her daughter is going to marry a duke, and it has crowned her triumph to let it be known that I am going to marry only a Post Office clerk. I don"t begrudge her that in the least. But as they have talked about it so much, they ought, at any rate, to let me have my Post Office clerk."
"I have nothing to say about it one way or the other," said Hampstead. "I say nothing about it, at any rate now."
"What do you mean by that, John?"
"When I saw how miserable you were at Trafford I did my best to bring you away. But I could only bring you here on an express stipulation that you should not meet George Roden while you were in my house. If you can get my father"s consent to your meeting him, then that part of the contract will be over."
"I don"t think I made any promise."