These words brought another scruple to his mind. He said: “Her hunting! Could she bear to give that up? Even if I could endure to let her risk her neck, my home is in Kent, and that is poor hunting country—humbug country, I expect she would call it! There are several packs, but I have never been much addicted to the sport. I could become a subscriber, but I doubt—She told me once that she thought nothing equal to the Cottesmore country!”
“Yes,” said Fanny. “Shabituéhe and her papa were used to visit Lord Lonsdale every year, at Lowther Hall. But for the most part, of course, they hunted with the Duke of Beaufort’s pack. I believe—but I have never hunted myself I—that that is very good country too.” She smiled at him, as something very like a groan burst from him. “Major Kirkby, you are too despondent! It would be a very poor creature who would set such considerations as that in the balance!”
“I know she would not! But I should wish her to have everything she desired!”
“Well, if she desired it so very much, perhaps it could be contrived. You might purchase a lodge in the Shires, or—”
“That I might do, but maintain a dozen or so first-rate hunters I could not!”
“But Serena has a very large fortune of her own!” said Fanny.
He sprang up, and began to walk about the room again. “Yes! I have no knowledge—but it was bound to be so! I wish to God it were not! You will understand me, Lady Spenborough, when I say that I had rather by far she were penniless than that there should be sogreat a disparity—as I fear there must be—between our fortunes!”
“I do understand you,” she replied warmly. “Such a sentiment cannot but do you honour, but, believe me, it would be most wrong, most foolish, to let a scruple stand in the way of—perhaps—the happiness of you both!”
He came striding back to her, and caught her hand to his lips. “I have no words with which to thank you! If I have your consent, I care for no other! You know Serena—you love her—and you tell me to go forward!”
“Oh, yes, but I am not her guardian, you know! She is quite her own mistress! At least—” She paused, suddenly struck by an unwelcome thought. “I had forgot! Oh, dear!”
.”She has a guardian? Someone to whom I should apply before approaching her?”
“No, no! Only her fortune is—is strangely tied-up, and perhaps—But I should not be talking of her affairs!”
He pressed her hand slightly. “Do not! I hope it may be so securely tied-up that I could not touch it if I would! I must go. If I could express to you my gratitude for your kindness, your understanding—!” He smiled down at her with a good deal of archness. The word dowager will never again have the power to terrify me!”
She laughed, and blushed. He again kissed her hand, and turned to go away, just as the door opened, and Serena, in her walking dress, came into the room.
“I thought I recognized the modish hat reposing on the table in the hall!” she remarked, drawing off her gloves, and tossing them aside. “How do you do. Hector?” Her eyes went from him to Fanny, and the smile in them deepened. “Now, what conspiracy have you been hatching to make you both look so guilty?”
“No conspiracy,” the Major said, going to her, and helping her to take off her pelisse. “Did you find your very odd acquaintance—Mrs Floore, is it not?—at home? I should think she was very much obliged to you for your visit!”
“I believe you are quite as high in the instep as Fanny, and disapprove of Mrs Floore as heartily!” Serena exclaimed.
“I own I cannot think her a proper friend for you,” he admitted.
“Stuff! I found her at home, and I was very much obliged to her for the welcome she was kind enough to give me. I must say, Fanny, I wish we were in London, just that we might see with our own eyes the Laleham woman’s triumph!”
“You don’t mean to say that she has made up a brilliant match for poor Emily already?” cried Fanny.
“No, she hasn’t done that, but, if she’s to be believed, she might have her pick of a dozen eligible partis tomorrow, if she chose! Flying at higher game, I conclude! So does Mrs Floore. She still holds by her cross-eyed Duke! I am very sceptical about him, but there seems to be no doubt that the Rotherham ball has worked like a charm. I daresay it might help to open some doors, but what tactics the Laleham woman employed to force open some others, and which of the Patronesses she out-generalled into surrendering vouchers for Almack’s, I would give a fortune to know. One can’t but admire her!”
“Odious woman!” Fanny said. “I am sorry for Emily.”
“Nonsense! She will be in high feather, enjoying a truly magnificent season.”
“But who is this lady?” asked the Major.
“She is Mrs Floore’s daughter, not as engaging as her mama, but quite as redoubtable.”
“She is a hateful, scheming creature!” said Fanny, with unusual asperity. “Excuse me!—I must speak to Lybster!—Something I forgot to tell him he must do! No, no, pray don’t pull the bell, dearest!”
“Good gracious, Fanny, what in the world—?” Serena stopped, for the door had closed softly behind Fanny.
“Serena!”
She turned her head, struck by the urgent note in the Major’s voice. One look at his face was enough to explain Fanny’s surprising behaviour. She felt suddenly breathless, and absurdly shy.
He came towards her, and took her hands. “It was not conspiracy. I came to ask her, as one who is in some sort your guardian, if I might ask you to marry me.”
“Oh, Hector, how could you be so foolish?” she said, her voice catching on something between a laugh and a sob. “What has poor Fanny to say to anything? Did she tell you that you might? Must I ask her what I should reply?”
“Not that! But I am aware now, as I never was seven years ago, of the gulf that lies between us!”
She pulled one of her hands away, and pressed her fingers against his mouth. “Don’t say such things! I forbid you! Don’t think yourself unworthy of me! If you only knew—But you don’t, my poor Hector, you don’t! It’s I who am unworthy! You’ve no notion how detestable I can be, how headstrong, how obstinate, how shrewish.”
He caught her into his arms, saying thickly: “Do not you say such things! My goddess, my queen!”
“Oh, no, no, no!”
He raised his head, smiling a little crookedly down at her. “Do you dislike to hear yourself called so? There is nothing I would not do to please you, but you cannot help but be my goddess! You have been so these seven years!”
“Only a goddess could dislike it! You see by that how wretchedly short of the mark I fall. I have a little honesty—enough to tell you now that you must not worship me.”
He only laughed, and kissed her again. She protested no more, too much a woman not to be deeply moved by such idolatry, and awed by the constancy which, though it might have been to a false image, could not be doubted.
It was not long before he was saying to her much of what he had previously said to Fanny, anxiously laying his circumstances before her, and dwelling so particularly on the disparity between them of rank and fortune, that she interrupted presently to say with mingled amusement and impatience: “My dearest Hector, I wish you will not talk such nonsense! Why do you set so much store by rank? You are a gentleman, and I hope I am a gentlewoman, and as for fortune, we shall Ho very well!”
His expression changed; he said: “I wish to God you had no fortune!”
It was not to be expected that she should understand such a point of view, nor did she. In her world, a poorly dowered girl was an object for compassion. Even a love-match must depend upon the marriage-settlements, and wealthy and besotted indeed must be the suitor who allied himself to a portionless damsel. She looked her astonishment, and repeated, in a blank voice: “Wish I had no fortune?”