"This morning," replied Sir Joseph. "An opportunity offered itself after breakfast. I took advantage of it, Richard--you shall hear how."
He settled himself in his chair for one of his interminable stories; he began his opening sentence--and stopped, struck dumb at the first word. There was an unexpected obstacle in the way--his sister was not attending to him; his sister had silenced him at starting. The story touching, this time, on the question of marriage, Miss Lavinia had her woman"s interest in seeing full justice done to the subject. She seized on her brother"s narrative as on property in her own right.
"Joseph should have told you," she began, addressing herself to Turlington, "that our dear girl was unusually depressed in spirits this morning. Quite in the right frame of mind for a little serious talk about her future life. She ate nothing at breakfast, poor child, but a morsel of dry toast."
"And marmalade," said Sir Joseph, striking in at the first opportunity.
The story, on this occasion, being Miss Lavinia"s story, the polite contradictions necessary to its successful progress were naturally transferred from the sister to the brother, and became contradictions on Sir Joseph"s side.
"No," said Miss Lavinia, gently, "if you _will_ have it, Joseph--jam."
"I beg your pardon," persisted Sir Joseph; "marmalade."
"What _does_ it matter, brother?"
"Sister! the late great and good Doctor Johnson said accuracy ought always to be studied even in the most trifling things."
"You _will_ have your way, Joseph--"(this was the formula--answering to Sir Joseph"s "Let us waive the point"--which Miss Lavinia used, as a means of conciliating her brother, and getting a fresh start for her story). "Well, we took dear Natalie out between us, after breakfast, for a little walk in the grounds. My brother opened the subject with infinite delicacy and tact. "Circ.u.mstances," he said, "into which it was not then necessary to enter, made it very desirable, young as she was, to begin to think of her establishment in life." And then he referred, Richard (so nicely), to your faithful and devoted attachment--"
"Excuse me, Lavinia. I began with Richard"s attachment, and then I got on to her establishment in life."
"Excuse _me_, Joseph. You managed it much more delicately than you suppose. You didn"t drag Richard in by the head and shoulders in that way."
"Lavinia! I began with Richard."
"Joseph! your memory deceives you."
Turlington"s impatience broke through all restraint.
"How did it end?" he asked. "Did you propose to her that we should be married in the first week of the New Year?"
"Yes!" said Miss Lavinia.
"No!" said Sir Joseph.
The sister looked at the brother with an expression of affectionate surprise. The brother looked at the sister with a fund of amiable contradiction, expressed in a low bow.
"Do you really mean to deny, Joseph, that you told Natalie we had decided on the first week in the New Year?"
"I deny the New Year, Lavinia. I said early in January."
"You _will_ have your way, Joseph! We were walking in the shrubbery at the time. I had our dear girl"s arm in mine, and I felt it tremble.
She suddenly stopped. "Oh," she said, "not so soon!" I said, "My dear, consider Richard!" She turned to her father. She said, "Don"t, pray don"t press it so soon, papa! I respect Richard; I like Richard as your true and faithful friend; but I don"t love him as I ought to love him if I am to be his wife." Imagine her talking in that way! What could she possibly know about it? Of course we both laughed--"
"_you_ laughed, Lavinia."
"_you_ laughed, Joseph."
"Get on, for G.o.d"s sake!" cried Turlington, striking his hand pa.s.sionately on the table by which he was sitting. "Don"t madden me by contradicting each other! Did she give way or not?"
Miss Lavinia turned to her brother. "Contradicting each other, Joseph!"
she exclaimed, lifting her hands in blank amazement.
"Contradicting each other!" repeated Sir Joseph, equally astonished on his side. "My dear Richard, what can you be thinking of? I contradict my sister! We never disagreed in our lives."
"I contradict my brother! We have never had a cross word between us from the time when we were children."
Turlington internally cursed his own irritable temper.
"I beg your pardon--both of you," he said. "I didn"t know what I was saying. Make some allowance for me. All my hopes in life are centered in Natalie; and you have just told me (in her own words, Miss Lavinia) that she doesn"t love. You don"t mean any harm, I dare say; but you cut me to the heart."
This confession, and the look that accompanied it, touched the ready sympathies of the two old people in the right place. The remainder of the story dropped between them by common consent. They vied with each other in saying the comforting words which would allay their dear Richard"s anxiety. How little he knew of young girls. How could he be so foolish, poor fellow! as to attach any serious importance to what Natalie had said? As if a young creature in her teens knew the state of her own heart! Protestations and entreaties were matters of course, in such cases. Tears even might be confidently expected from a right-minded girl. It had all ended exactly as Richard would have wished it to end.
Sir Joseph had said, "My child! this is a matter of experience; love will come when you are married." And Miss Lavinia had added, "Dear Natalie, if you remembered your poor mother as I remember her, you would know that your father"s experience is to be relied on." In that way they had put it to her; and she had hung her head and had given--all that maiden modesty could be expected to give--a silent consent. "The wedding-day was fixed for the first week in the New Year." ("No, Joseph; not January--the New Year.") "And G.o.d bless you, Richard! and may your married life be a long and happy one."
So the average ignorance of human nature, and the average belief in conventional sentiment, complacently contemplated the sacrifice of one more victim on the all-devouring altar of Marriage! So Sir Joseph and his sister provided Launcelot Linzie with the one argument which he wanted to convince Natalie: "Choose between making the misery of your life by marrying _him_, and making the happiness of your life by marrying _me._"
"When shall I see her?" asked Turlington, with Miss Lavinia (in tears which did _her_ credit) in possession of one of his hands, and Sir Joseph (in tears which did _him_ credit) in possession of the other.
"She will be back to dinner, dear Richard. Stay and dine."
"Thank you. I must go into the City first. I will come back and dine."
With that arrangement in prospect, he left them.
An hour later a telegram arrived from Natalie. She had consented to dine, as well as lunch, in Berkeley Square--sleeping there that night, and returning the next morning. Her father instantly telegraphed back by the messenger, insisting on Natalie"s return to Muswell Hill that evening, in time to meet Richard Turlington at dinner.
"Quite right. Joseph," said Miss Lavinia, looking over her brother"s shoulder, while he wrote the telegram.
"She is showing a disposition to coquet with Richard," rejoined Sir Joseph, with the air of a man who knew female human nature in its remotest corners. "My telegram, Lavinia, will have its effect."
Sir Joseph was quite right. His telegram _had_ its effect. It not only brought his daughter back to dinner--it produced another result which his prophetic faculty had altogether failed to foresee.
The message reached Berkeley Square at five o"clock in the afternoon.
Let us follow the message.
FIFTH SCENE.
The Square.
Between four and five in the afternoon--when the women of the Western regions are in their carriages, and the men are at their clubs--London presents few places more conveniently adapted for purposes of private talk than the solitary garden inclosure of a square.
On the day when Richard Turlington paid his visit to Muswell Hill, two ladies (with a secret between them) unlocked the gate of the railed garden in Berkeley Square. They shut the gate after entering the inclosure, but carefully forbore to lock it as well, and carefully restricted their walk to the westward side of the garden. One of them was Natalie Graybrooke. The other was Mrs. Sancroft"s eldest daughter.
A certain temporary interest attached, in the estimation of society, to this young lady. She had sold well in the marriage market. In other words, she had recently been raised to the position of Lord Winwood"s second wife; his lordship conferring on the bride not only the honors of the peerage, but the additional distinction of being stepmother to his three single daughters, all older than herself. In person, Lady Winwood was little and fair. In character, she was dashing and resolute--a complete contrast to Natalie, and (on that very account) Natalie"s bosom friend.
"My dear, one ambitious marriage in the family is quite enough! I have made up my mind that _you_ shall marry the man you love. Don"t tell me your courage is failing you--the excuse is contemptible; I decline to receive it. Natalie! the men have a phrase which exactly describes your character. You want back-bone!"
The bonnet of the lady who expressed herself in these peremptory terms barely reached the height of Natalie"s shoulder. Natalie might have blown the little airy, light-haired, unsubstantial creature over the railings of the garden if she had taken a good long breath and stooped low enough. But who ever met with a tall woman who had a will of her own? Natalie"s languid brown eyes looked softly down in submissive attention from an elevation of five feet seven. Lady Winwood"s brisk blue eyes looked brightly up in despotic command from an elevation of four feet eleven (in her shoes).