[_Lightly._] You may be quite sure I have no wish to bring about such a calamity. By the way, have you thought over our little talk of last night?
LADY FREDERICK.
No.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
You would have been wise to do so.
LADY FREDERICK.
My dear Captain Montgomerie, you really can"t expect me to marry you because my brother has been so foolish as to lose more money at poker than he can afford.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
Did you ever hear that my father was a money-lender?
LADY FREDERICK.
A lucrative profession, I believe.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
He found it so. He was a Polish Jew called Aaron Levitzki. He came to this country with three shillings in his pocket. He lent half-a-crown of it to a friend on the condition that he should be paid back seven and six in three days.
LADY FREDERICK.
I"m not good at figures, but the interest sounds rather high.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
It is. That was one of my father"s specialities. From these humble beginnings his business grew to such proportions that at his death he was able to leave me the name and arms of the great family of Montgomerie and something over a million of money.
LADY FREDERICK.
The result of thrift, industry, and good fortune.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
My father was able to gratify all his ambitions but one. He was eaten up with the desire to move in good society, and this he was never able to achieve. His dying wish was that I should live in those circles which he knew only....
LADY FREDERICK.
Across the counter?
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
Precisely. But my poor father was a little ignorant in these matters. To him one lord was as good as another. He thought a Marquess a finer man than an Earl, and a Viscount than a Baron. He would never have understood that a penniless Irish baronet might go into better society than many a belted earl.
LADY FREDERICK.
And what is the application of this?
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
I wanted to explain to you one of the reasons which emboldened me last night to make you a proposal of marriage.
LADY FREDERICK.
But surely you know some very nice people. I saw you lunching the other day with the widow of a city knight.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
Many very excellent persons are glad to have me to dine with them. But I know quite well that they"re not the real article. I"m as far off as ever from getting into those houses which you have been used to all your life. I"m not content with third-rate earls and rather seedy dowagers.
LADY FREDERICK.
Forgive my frankness, but--aren"t you rather a sn.o.b?
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
My father, Aaron Levitzki, married an English woman, and I have all the English virtues.
LADY FREDERICK.
But I"m not quite sure that people would swallow you even as my husband.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
They"d make a face, but they"d swallow me right enough. And when I asked them down to the best shoot in England they"d come to the conclusion that I agreed with them very well.
LADY FREDERICK.
[_Still rather amused._] Your offer is eminently businesslike, but you see I"m not a business woman. It doesn"t appeal to me.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
I only ask you to perform such of the duties of a wife as are required by Society. They are few enough in all conscience. I should wish you to entertain largely and receive my guests, be polite to me, at least in public, and go with me to the various places people go to. Otherwise I leave you entire freedom. You will find me generous and heedful to all your wishes.
LADY FREDERICK.
Captain Montgomerie, I don"t know how much of all that you have said is meant seriously. But, surely you"re not choosing the right time to make such a proposal when my brother owes you so much money that if you care to be hard you can ruin him.
CAPTAIN MONTGOMERIE.
Why not?
LADY FREDERICK.