"See how you wrong a man sometimes, you ladies--even the most reasonable among you. Heron is more Quixotic than you think, Miss Grey. I have had a letter from him this very morning about St. Paul. I"ll read it if you like--it need not be kept secret from anybody here."
Mrs. Money and Lucy earnestly asked to have the letter read, and Mr.
Money read it accordingly:
"MY DEAR MONEY: I don"t like St. Paul, and I won"t march through Coventry with him. I think he is unprincipled and discreditable, and if I can"t get in for Keeton without his helping hand, I"ll stay out of Keeton, and that"s all about _that_. I know you will agree with me when you think this over. Excuse haste and abruptness. I want to make my position clear to you without any loss of time.
"Yours faithfully,
"VICTOR HERON."
"Now, Nola, you see you were wrong," the triumphant Lucy exclaimed.
"I do not like Mr. St. Paul," the quiet Theresa observed. "He seems to me G.o.dless and demoralized. He spake in the lightest and most scoffing way of the labors of the Church among the heathen populations."
"I liked him," Mrs. Money sighed. "I liked him because he had the spirit to resign his rank and fling away his t.i.tle."
"I think his rank rather resigned him," Mr. Money observed. "Anyhow, one must in the ordinary world consent to take up with a scamp now and then.
Heron says he won"t have anything to do with St. Paul, and Lucy undertakes to say for him that he won"t be patronized by Lady Limpenny.
I ask you all calmly, as civilized and Christian beings, how is a young fellow to get on in London who won"t consent to be helped by scamps and old women."
"Mr. Heron represents a political cause," the eager Lucy began.
Her father looked quietly round at her.
"Why, Lucelet, my dear, when did you come to know anything about political causes, or to care about them? I thought you only cared for the renascence of art--isn"t it renascence you call it? I understood that politics were entirely beneath the notice of all your school. Pray tell me, Mistress Politician, to which side of politics your father belongs?"
"Oh, papa, for shame! What nonsense! As if I didn"t know. Of course you are a Liberal--an advanced Liberal."
"Good; and our friend Heron?"
"An advanced Liberal too. Of course I know that you are on his side."
"That I am on his side? That he is on my side wouldn"t do, I suppose, although I am somewhat the elder, and I am in Parliament while he is not in, and is not particularly likely to be if he continues to be so squeamish. What are the political views of our young friend the artist, the poet, the bard, or whatever you please to call him?"
"Mr. Blanchet?" Lucy slightly colored.
"Mr. Blanchet, yes. Am I on his side?"
"Oh, he has no side. He knows nothing of politics," Lucy said contemptuously.
"Stupid of him, isn"t it?"
"Very stupid. At least, I suppose so; I don"t know. Oh, yes; I think every man ought to understand politics."
Mr. Money smiled, and let the subject drop.
When breakfast was over, Mr. Money suddenly said,
"Miss Grey, you always profess to know something about politics. Anyhow, you know something about Keeton folks, and you can give me some useful hints about their ways with which I can instruct our dear friend Heron, as Lady Limpenny calls him. Would you mind coming to my study for a quarter of an hour, away from all this womankind, and answering me a few questions?"
Minola was a little surprised, but showed no surprise, and only said that she would be delighted, of course. Mr. Money offered her his arm with a somewhat old-fashioned courtesy which contrasted not unbecomingly with his usual cheery bluntness of manner to women and men alike.
"Not many ladies come here, Miss Grey," Money said, offering her a chair when they were in the study. "Lucelet looks in very often, to be sure, but only as a messenger; she doesn"t come into council."
"Do I come into council?" Minola asked with a smile and a little of heightened color. "I shall feel myself of great importance."
"Well, yes, into council. First about yourself. I have been looking into your affairs a little, Miss Grey--don"t be angry; we are all fond of you in this house, and you don"t seem to have any one in particular to look after your interests."
"It was very kind and good of you. I have not many friends, Mr. Money; but I am afraid the word "interests" is rather too large for any affairs of mine. Have I any interests? Mary Blanchet understands all my affairs much better than I do."
"Yes, they may be called interests, I think. You know that anybody who likes can find out everything about people"s wills, and all that. Do you know anything about your father"s will?"
"No," Minola said, with a start, and feeling the tears coming to her eyes. "I don"t, Mr. Money. At least, not much. I know that he left me some money--so much every year; not much--it would not be much for Lucy--but enough for me and Mary Blanchet. Mary Blanchet manages it for me, and makes it go twice as far as I could. We never spend it all--I mean, we haven"t spent it all this year. I should never be able to manage or to get on at all only for her."
Minola spoke with eagerness now, for she was afraid that she was about to receive some of the advice which worldly people call wise, and to be admonished of the improvidence of sharing her little purse with Mary Blanchet.
"And, indeed, I ought to do something for her--something particular,"
she hastened to add, for she was seized with a sudden fear that Mr.
Money might have heard somewhere of her resolve to have Mr. Blanchet"s poems printed at her own expense, and might proceed to remonstrate with her.
Mr. Money smiled, seeing completely through her, and only thinking to himself that she was a remarkably good girl, and that he much wished he had a son to marry her.
"Do you know what I was thinking of?" he asked bluntly.
"I am sure you were thinking about me, for you laughed--at my ignorance of business ways, I suppose?"
"Not at all; I was thinking that I should like to have a son, and that I should like you to marry him."
Minola laughed and colored, but took his words as they were meant, in all good humor and kindness.
"If you had a son, Mr. Money, I am sure I would marry him if you asked me, and he----"
"Thank you. Well, I am only sorry I can"t take you at your word. But that wasn"t exactly what I brought you here to tell you. What I want to tell you is this. You are likely to have a good deal of property of one kind and another, Miss Grey. Your father, I find, made a good deal of money in his time, and saved it; bought houses and built houses; bought up annuities, insurances, shares in companies--all manner of things. He only left his property to his present wife for her use of what it brings every year during her life. At her death it all comes to you, and I"m told she can"t live long."
"Oh, but she may. I hope and pray that she may," Minola exclaimed. "It seems shocking to watch for a woman"s death, especially when we were not very friendly to each other. I don"t want the money; I have enough--quite enough. I shouldn"t know what to do with it. I don"t care much about new dresses, and bonnets, and the fashions, and all that; and what could I do with money, living alone in my quiet way? I think a girl of my age, living all to herself, and having much money, would be perfectly ridiculous. Why could not her husband get it, if the poor creature dies? That would be only right. I am sure he may have it for me."
"He mayn"t have it for me though," Mr. Money said. "You have no one, it seems to me, to look after your interests, and I"ll take the liberty to do so, for lack of a better, whether you like it or not. However, we can talk about that when the time comes."
Minola gave a sort of shudder.
"When the time comes. That seems so dreadful; as if we were only waiting for the poor woman to be dead to s.n.a.t.c.h at whatever she left behind her.
Mr. Money, is there really no other way? must I have this property?"
"If she dies before you, yes--it will come to you. Of course you know that it isn"t great wealth in the London sense. It won"t const.i.tute you an heiress in the Berkeley Square sense, but it will give you a good deal of miscellaneous property for a young woman. Well, as to that, I"ll see that you get your rights; and the only thing I have to ask is just that you will not do anything decided, or anything at all, in this business, without consulting me."
"Oh, indeed, I can faithfully promise you that. I have no other friend whom I could possibly consult, or who would take any interest in me."
"Come, now, I can"t believe that. If you wish, you can be like the young lady in Sheridan"s song--friends in all the aged you"ll meet, and lovers in the young."