"Has he? Who, then, was taking your daughter to dinner-parties, to theatres--I don"t know what?"
Lind dealt gently with this madness.
"Who told you?"
"I have eyes and ears."
"Put them to a better use, Beratinsky."
Then he left, and the hansom carried him along to Curzon Street. Natalie herself flew to the door when she heard the cab drive up: there she was to receive him, smiling a welcome, and so like her mother that he was almost startled. She caught his face in her two hands and kissed him.
"Ah, why did you not let me come to meet you at Liverpool?"
"There were too many with me, Natalie. I was busy. Now get Anneli to open my portmanteau, and you can find out for yourself all the things I have brought for you."
"I do not care for them, papa; I like to have you yourself back."
"I suppose you were rather dull, Natalushka, being all by yourself?"
"Sometimes. But I will tell you all that has happened when you are having breakfast."
"I have had breakfast, child. Now I shall get through my letters, and you can tell me all that has happened afterward."
This was equivalent to a dismissal; so Natalie went up-stairs, leaving her father to go into the small study, where lay another bundle of letters for him.
Almost the first that he opened was from George Brand; and to his amazement he found, not details about progress in the North, but a simple, straightforward, respectful demand to be permitted to claim the hand of Natalie in marriage. He did not conceal the fact that this proposal had already been made to Natalie herself; he ventured to hope that it was not distasteful to her; he would also hope that her father had no objections to urge. It was surely better that the future of a young girl in her position should be provided for. As regarded by himself, Mr. Lind"s acquaintance with him was no doubt but recent and comparatively slight; but if he wished any further and natural inquiry into the character of the man to whom he was asked to intrust his daughter, Lord Evelyn might be consulted as his closest friend. And a speedy answer was requested.
This letter was, on the whole, rather a calm and business-like performance. Brand could appeal to Natalie, and that earnestly and honestly enough; he felt he could not bring himself to make any such appeal to her father. Indeed, any third person reading this letter would have taken it to be more of the nature of a formal demand, or something required by the conventionalities; a request the answer to which was not of tremendous importance, seeing that the two persons most interested had already come to an understanding.
But Mr. Lind did not look at it in that light at all. He was at first surprised; then vexed and impatient, rather than angry; then determined to put an end to this nonsense at once. If he had deemed the matter more serious, he would have sat down and considered it with his customary fore thought; but he was merely irritated.
"Beratinsky was not so mad as I took him to be, after all," he said to himself. "Fortunately, the affair has not gone too far."
He carried the open letter up-stairs, and found Natalie in the drawing-room, dusting some pieces of Venetian gla.s.s.
"Natalie," he said, with an abruptness that startled her, and in a tone of anger which was just a little bit affected--"Natalie, what is the meaning of this folly?"
She turned and regarded him. He held the open letter in his hand. She said, calmly,
"I do not understand you."
This only vexed him the more.
"I ask you what you have been doing in my absence?" he said, angrily.
"What have you been doing to ent.i.tle any man to write me such a letter as this? His affection! your future!--has he not something else to think of? And you--you seem not to have been quite so dull when I was away, after all! Well, it is time to have an end of it. Whatever nonsense may have been going on, I hope you have both of you come to your senses. Let me hear no more of it!"
Now she saw clearly what the letter must contain--what had stirred her father to such an unusual exhibition of wrath. She was a little pale, but not afraid. There was no tremor in her voice as she spoke.
"I am sorry, papa, you should speak to me like that. I think you forget that I am no longer a child. I have done nothing that I am ashamed of; and if Mr. Brand has written to you, I am willing to share the responsibility of anything he says. You must remember, papa, that I am a woman, and that I ought to have a voice in anything that concerns my own happiness."
He looked at her almost with wonder, as if he did not quite recognize her. Was this the gentle-natured little Natalushka, whose eyes would fill with tears if she was scolded even in fun?--this tall, self-possessed girl with the pale face, and the firm and even tones?
"Do you mean to tell me, Natalie, that it is with your consent Brand has written to me?" her father asked, with frowning brows.
"I did not know he would write. I expected he would."
"Perhaps," said he, with an ironical smile, "perhaps you have taken time by the forelock, and already promised to be his wife?"
The answer was given with the same proud composure.
"I have not. But I have promised, if I am not his wife, never to be the wife of any other man."
It was now that Lind began to perceive how serious this matter was. This was no school-girl, to be frightened out of a pa.s.sing fancy. He must appeal to the reason of a woman; and the truth is, that if he had known he had this to undertake, he would not so hastily have gone into that drawing-room with the open letter in his hand.
"Sit down Natalie," he said, quite gently. "I want to talk to you. I spoke hastily; I was surprised and angry. Now let us see calmly how matters stand; I dare say no great harm has been done yet."
She took a seat opposite him; there was not the least sign of any girlish breaking down, even when he spoke to her in this kind way.
"I have no doubt you acted quite rightly and prudently when I was away; and as for Mr. Brand, well, any one can see that you have grown to be a good-looking young woman, and of course he would like to have a good-looking young wife to show off among the country people, and to go riding to hounds with him. Let us see what is involved in your becoming his wife, supposing that were ever seriously to be thought of. You give up all your old sympathies and friends, your interest in the work we have on hand, and you get transferred to a Buckinghamshire country-house to take the place of the old house-keeper. If you do not hear anything of what is going on--of our struggles--of your friends all over Europe--what of that? You will have the kitchen-garden to look after, and poultry to feed; and your neighbors will talk to you at dinner about foxes and dogs and horses and the clergyman"s charities. It will be a healthy life, Natalie: perhaps you will get stout and rosy, like an English matron. But your old friends--you will have forgotten them."
"Never!--never!" she said, vehemently; and, despite herself, her eyes filled with tears.
"Then we will take Mr. Brand. The Buckinghamshire house is open again.
An Englishman"s house is his castle; there is a great deal of work in superintending it, its entertainments, its dependents. Perhaps he has a pack of foxhounds; no doubt he is a justice of the peace, and the terror of poachers. But in the midst of all this hunting, and giving of dinner-parties, and shooting of pheasants, do you think he has much time or thought for the future of the millions of poor wretches all over Europe who once claimed his care? Not much! That was in his days of irresponsible bachelorhood. Now he is settled down--he is a country gentleman. The world can set itself right without him. He is anxious about the price of wheat."
"Ah, how you mistake him, papa!" said she, proudly. And there was a proud light on her face too as she rose and quickly went to a small escritoire close by. A few seconds sufficed her to write a short note, which she brought back to her father.
"There," said she, "I will abide by that test. If he says "yes," I will never see him again--never speak one word to him again."
Her father took the note and read it. It was as follows:
"My Dear Friend,--I am anxious about the future for both of us. If you will promise me, now and at once, to give up the work you are engaged in, I will be your wife, when and where you will.
NATALIE."
"Send it!" she said, proudly. "I am not afraid. If he says "yes," I will never see him again."
The challenge was not accepted. He tore the note in two and flung it into the grate.
"It is time to put an end to this folly," he said impatiently. "I have shown you what persistence in it would bring on yourself. You would be estranged from everything and every one you have hitherto been interested in; you would have to begin a new life, for which you are not fitted; you would be the means of doing our cause an irreparable injury.
Yes, I say so frankly. The withdrawal of this man Brand, which would certainly follow, sooner or later, on his marriage, would be a great blow to us. We have need of his work; we have still more need of his money. And it is you, you of all people in the world, who would be the means of taking him away from us!"
"But it is not so, papa," she said in great distress. "Surely you do not think that I am begging to be allowed to become his wife? That is for him to decide; I will follow his wishes as far as I can--as far as you will allow me, papa. But this I know, that, so far from interfering with the work he has undertaken, it would only spur him on. Should I have thought of it otherwise? Ah, surely you know--you have said so to me yourself--he is not one to go back."
"He is an Englishman; you do not understand Englishmen," her father said; and then he added, firmly, "You are not to be deterred by what may happen to yourself. Well, consider what may happen to him. I tell you I will not have this risk run. George Brand is too valuable to us. If you or he persist in this folly, it will be necessary to provide against all contingencies by procuring his banishment."
"Banishment!" she exclaimed, with a quick and frightened look.