"Why more fitting, mamma?"
"Well, my dear; it will."
"Dear mamma;--why,--why?"
"Of course, my dear, I am very glad that you are going to get such a lift."
"My lift is marrying the man I love."
"That of course is all right. I have nothing on earth to say against it. And I will say that through it all you have behaved as a young woman should. I don"t think you meant to throw yourself at him."
"Mamma!"
"But as it has turned up, you have to go one way and me another."
"No!"
"But it must be so. The Squire of Bragton is the Squire, and his wife must act accordingly. Of course you"ll be visiting at Rufford and Hampton Wick, and all the places. I know very well who I am, and what I came from. I"m not a bit ashamed of myself, but I"m not going to stick myself up with my betters."
"Then mamma, I shall come and be married from here."
"It"s too late for that now, my dear."
"No;--it is not." And then a couple of tears began to roll down from her eyes. "I won"t be married without your coming in to see me the night before, and being with me in the morning when I dress. Haven"t I been a good child to you, mamma?" Then the step-mother began to cry also. "Haven"t I, mamma?"
"Yes, my dear," whimpered the poor woman.
"And won"t you be my mamma to the last;--won"t you?" And she threw her arms round her step-mother"s neck and kissed her. "I won"t go one way, and you another. He doesn"t wish it. It is quite different from that. I don"t care a straw for Hampton Wick and Rufford; but I will never be separated from you and the girls and papa. Say you will come, mamma. I will not let you go till you say you will come." Of course she had her own way, and Mrs. Masters had to feel with a sore heart that she also must go out Ushanting. She knew, that in spite of her domestic powers, she would be stricken dumb in the drawing-room at Bragton and was unhappy.
Mary had another scheme in which she was less fortunate. She took it into her head that Larry Twentyman might possibly be induced to come to her wedding. She had heard how he had ridden and gained honour for himself on the day that the hounds killed their fox at Norrington, and thought that perhaps her own message to him had induced him so far to return to his old habits. And now she longed to ask him, for her sake, to be happy once again. If any girl ever loved the man she was going to marry with all her heart, this girl loved Reginald Morton. He had been to her, when her love was hopeless, so completely the master of her heart that she could not realise the possibility of affection for another. But yet she was pervaded by a tenderness of feeling in regard to Larry which was love also,--though love altogether of another kind. She thought of him daily. His future well-being was one of the cares of her life. That her husband might be able to call him a friend was among her prayers. Had anybody spoken ill of him in her presence she would have resented it hotly.
Had she been told that another girl had consented to be his wife, she would have thought that girl to be happy in her destiny. When she heard that he was leading a wretched, moping, aimless life for her sake, her heart was sad within her. It was necessary to the completion of her happiness that Larry should recover his tone of mind and be her friend. "Reg," she said, leaning on his arm out in the park, "I want you to do me a favour."
"Watch and chain?"
"Don"t be an idiot. You know I"ve got a watch and chain."
"Some girls like two. To have the wooden bridge pulled down and a stone one built."
"If any one touched a morsel of that sacred timber he should be banished from Bragton for ever. I want you to ask Mr. Twentyman to come to our wedding."
"Who"s to do it? Who"s to bell the cat?"
"You."
"I would sooner fight a Saracen, or ride such a horse as killed that poor major. Joking apart, I don"t see how it is to be done. Why do you wish it?"
"Because I am so fond of him."
"Oh;--indeed!"
"If you"re a goose, I"ll hit you. I am fond of him. Next to you and my own people, and Lady Ushant, I like him best in all the world."
"What a pity you couldn"t have put him up a little higher."
"I used to think so too;--only I couldn"t. If anybody loved you as he did me,--offered you everything he had in the world,--thought that you were the best in the world,--would have given his life for you, would not you be grateful?"
"I don"t know that I need wish to ask such a person to my wedding."
"Yes, you would, if in that way you could build a bridge to bring him back to happiness. And, Reg, though you used to despise him--"
"I never despised him."
"A little I think--before you knew him. But he is not despicable."
"Not at all, my dear."
"He is honest and good, and has a real heart of his own."
"I am afraid he has parted with that."
"You know what I mean, and if you won"t be serious I shall think there is no seriousness in you. I want you to tell me how it can be done."
Then he was serious, and tried to explain to her that he could not very well do what she wanted. "He is your friend you know rather than mine;--but if you like to write to him you can do so."
This seemed to her to be very difficult, and, as she thought more of it, almost impossible. A written letter remains, and may be taken as evidence of so much more than it means. But a word sometimes may be spoken which, if it be well spoken,--if a.s.surance of its truth be given by the tone and by the eye of the speaker,--shall do so much more than any letter, and shall yet only remain with the hearer as the remembrance of the scent of a flower remains! Nevertheless she did at last write the letter, and brought it to her husband. "Is it necessary that I should see it?" he asked.
"Not absolutely necessary."
"Then send it without."
"But I should like you to see what I have said. You know about things, and if it is too much or too little, you can tell me." Then he read her letter, which ran as follows.
DEAR MR. TWENTYMAN,
Perhaps you have heard that we are to be married on Thursday, May 6th. I do so wish that you would come. It would make me so much happier on that day. We shall be very quiet; and if you would come to the house at eleven you could go across the park with them all to the church.
I am to be taken in a carriage because of my finery. Then there will be a little breakfast. Papa and mamma and Dolly and Kate would be so glad;--and so would Mr. Morton.
But none of them will be half so glad as your old, old, affectionate friend
MARY MASTERS.
"If that don"t fetch him," said Reginald, "he is a poorer creature than I take him to be."
"But I may send it?"
"Certainly you may send it." And so the letter was sent across to Chowton Farm.
But the letter did not "fetch" him; nor am I prepared to agree with Mr. Morton that he was a poor creature for not being "fetched." There are things which the heart of a man should bear without whimpering, but which it cannot bear in public with that appearance of stoical indifference which the manliness of a man is supposed to require.