I looked at Will; but he was sitting with his head between his hands, utterly worn out with the worry of the past few weeks.
"Is this true?," I asked.
"He will tell you," said Sir Appleton, taking care to give him no chance of speaking for himself, "that he always intended to marry her; he now clearly remembers promising to marry her, which is so satisfactory. It was only a question of times and seasons and ways and means. I admit it is not a solution which I consider ideal, because I—like you, though from another standpoint—do not regard it as a wholly suitable match. A first love, however, is not an easy thing to overcome, and Miss Phenton is unaffectedly devoted to your son despite the period of anxiety through which he unavoidably compelled her to pass; your son will tell you that he is no less devoted to her."
If only the man would have stopped talking for one moment! He sat there, smiling to himself and pouring out this stream of pretentious, shop-walker's English... I'm sure you know what I mean! One so often finds with people who are not quite certain of themselves that they heap up affectations and dare not venture on a colloquialism for fear of seeming what they would call "ungenteel".SlangI abhor, but thereissuch a thing as the daily speech of educated men and women...
"Tell me, dear Will," I begged, "whether this is true."
"I've always wanted to marry Molly," he answered. And, though sheer fatigue had taken the tone from his voice, I heard a throb of conviction. "I didn't see, though, how we could marry until we had something to marry on. That's what I told her fool of a father ... and her ... and the guv'nor ... and Sir Appleton. If you'd settle that between you instead of badgering me, I'll marry her to-morrow."
His nerves were strained to breaking-point...
And I am not ashamed to confess that I felt hardly adequate to discussing the most momentous decision in my boy's life. After inviting me to dinner, Sir Appleton seemed to have forgotten all about it. Nine o'clock had struck; and I was faint andsickwith hunger. I have reached an age when I like regular meals at regular hours. These business men must have iron constitutions; or else they must eat very hearty luncheons. And I kept saying to myself: "Fortrulyunbusinesslike irregularity, go to your business man." ...
One thing stood out clearly. As I have always refused toleadWill where his affections were concerned, so I could never stand in the way when once his heart had spoken.
"We must not worry him," I told Sir Appleton. "Cannot you and I talk over ways and means together? I have no idea what to suggest. As you know, my husband and I are paupers..."
He, if any one, after all that he had taken upon himself, was the man to help us out of our difficulty.
"I have a scheme," he said, "but your son had better hear it, as he will be a party to it."
I could have gone on my knees to him for a crust of bread... It could hardly have been deliberate—this policy of starvation—, but I wasstronglyreminded of very similar treatment from a certain general in the War Office ... who shall be nameless. You remember my difficulty about Will's commission; he was onfire, of course, to go into the infantry. "Do you," I asked him, "think you are serving your country by spending one day in the trenches and six months in hospital with rheumatic fever?" And, when I hadwastedargument and entreaty onhim, I carried my appeal to Cæsar. On thestaffmy boy would have been worth his weight in gold; anything else was simply a short cut to hospital. I told this general ... when atlastI contrived to see him; and his method of receiving me was to keep me standing—not a chair to be seen in the room!—with all the windows open, a gale blowing and no fire. I made him see reason at the end, but I was in bed for a week afterwards... I wondered whether Sir Appleton was trying to starve me into submission...
His plan... I wish you could have heard it in his own words! The impudence and brutality...
"If you've no money yourself, Lady Ann," he said, "you've rich relations. Lord Brackenbury, I am sure, would give a substantial sum to start his nephew in life. And so would your brother-in-law, Lord Spenworth. I have spoken to both and demonstrated that your son will be at the other side of the world for probably a number of years with no opportunity of coming to them, as in the past, when he needed assistance. They both seemed disposed to help, but felt that the first step should be taken by you. I have ascertained that the lease of your house—"
"You would like," I interrupted, "to sell the roof over my head! Why not the clothes off my back?"
"There is a great scarcity of houses," he said, "and you would get a good price. Besides, with your son married and away you will not have the same need for a big house in London... When the fund has been collected, it will be settled on Miss Phenton, as it is her position that requires safeguarding; you have assured me of your son's abilities, so he should have no difficulty in making a big income in the position which I contemplate offering him. If he fails, it will be his own fault; but, as I never believe in bolstering up failures, his wife must be made independent of his success in business. If you consent to this in principle and will empower me to work out the details, your son's appointment is secured, and he can sail for China as soon as he can get a passage. Let us now go in to dinner, or Miss Phenton will be wondering what has happened to us."
I feltthenthat he had decided to break me at all costs, one shock after another.ForcingWill into marriage,drivinghim abroad, calmly proposing that I should denude myself of everything—and then throwing me face to face with this girl. I tried to protest... And then I knew that, if he did not give me something to eat, I should simply break down...
I had met the girl before, of course—just for a moment, hardly long enough to take in more than a general view, "the old clergyman's pretty little daughter", if you understand me... Big grey eyes and a quantity of soft hair; a shy, appealing girl...
"Won't you leave us alone for a moment?," I said to Sir Appleton. Rather to my surprise hedidhave the consideration to oblige me in that. "Molly, my dear, won't you kiss me?," I said.
The poor little thing shrank from me...
"I'm soashamed," she cried.
"My child, my child," I said, "you are overwrought. But we are going to send you right away, where you will forget all your troubles. All will be well. All would have been well from the beginning if you had trusted me and taken me into your confidence."
"I felt you'd think me so wicked!," sobbed the poor little thing.
I told her that I couldn't thinkherwicked without thinking the same of Will.
"Right and Wrong," I said, "existed from the beginning and will endure to the end, irrespective of conventions and institutions. I say to you what I should not dare say to your father: right and wrong are older than any marriage laws. You love my boy?"
"Oh, I do," she cried. "I never loved any one before and I could never love any one else."
"And he loves you," I said. "Need we say any more at present? I find it hard to spare him, but sooner or later this is a thing that comes to every mother. If I surrender him to you, will you in your turn take my place and devote yourself to him as I have tried to do? There is so little time and so many things to do that I cannot talk to you as I should like. Very soon you will be married, very soon you will both have slipped away to a very far country. Nothing that any of us can do for you both will be left undone; every penny that we can scrape together will be yours. As time goes on, you will learn how much money can do—and how little. All my life I have been scraping and pinching, pinching and scraping to provide for the happiness and comfort of my husband and son. You will have to do the same. Very few of us have enough for all we should like, and you will find that between husband and wife, when one has to yield, it is the wife who yields. That is the law of the Medes and Persians. Too often it is 'A suit for himora frock for me'... Promise me that you will never let my boy go short of anything. He has been brought up to a certain standard of comfort, and I know by experience that, if you try to reduce that, it will be you who will suffer in the long run. That is part of the price that we pay for being women. And now," I said, "let me kiss my daughter."
I do not wonder that my boy fell in love with her.Youwill, too, the moment you see her. As Arthur did... There is nothing much more to tell you about our dinner with Sir Appleton; when hedidallow us to begin, I will say that he tried to make amends for any exhibition of what I had better call the business manner.
Of course, when I reached home, I found that I had only got rid of one trouble to make way for another. Arthur... He would have been even more furious if he had been less bewildered, but, as it is, I try to forget and I shall certainly not remind him of certain things that he said about my going to work behind his back, taking decisions over his head. When one has grownattachedto a house... Is it not my frame and setting? Is not every corner filled, for me, with memories of the old days when the princess almost lived with us? There was an entirelymeaninglessexplosion at the expense of poor Will, who very properly refused to be drawn into argument and went straight to bed.
"My dear Arthur," I said, "sooner or later this was inevitable. When our boy married, we knew that we should have to go on providing for him. Is it so great a sacrifice that we should move into a smaller house, that you, perhaps, should have to work longer than you had intended? It is to establish our son in life."
When the announcement was published, I invited just the family to a little informal dinner. They wereextravagantin their praise of Molly—Spenworth in his hyperbolical manner going so far as to tell her that she was "chucking herself away", as he elegantly put it, on some one who was not good enough for her. I should have thought it possible to pay a compliment without trying to be rude to as many other people as possible...
To do Spenworth justice, he behaved liberally over the money, though he must needs be facetious and tell Will that he would pay twice the sum tokeephim out of England. Such humour is a littleprimitive... I acquit Brackenbury, too, of any illiberality, though Spenworth must needs call this a "thank-offering" ... for some reason...
The marriage, of course, takes place immediately, as they sail the moment Sir Appleton can arrange about their passages. I am sure that it will be a success, though I prefer not to think about it; dearly as I love little Molly, sheisrobbing me of my boy. As soon as they leave England, I shall go right away for a time. What with one thing and another, the last year has been very exhausting, and Arthur and I have to prepare for a new life and a very different life. The old and the new are bridged by one's friends... Their love follows us into what must inevitably beretirementfrom the stage on which we have played our little part for our few years... We are abandoning any littlenichethat we may have occupied...
YouI hope to see constantly. At the ceremony, of course, and afterwards here... The princess is coming. Whoever appeals tohergraciousness and devotion will never appeal in vain...
THE END
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