“And you think I can help?”
“I don’t know of anyone else who can or would.”
“Tell me what it is.”
“It’s getting married. You see, now I come to think of it, I don’t want to.”
“But how do you think I can help … about that?”
“I thought you could tell me what to do.”
“I can’t think what I could say except break it off, and you would know how to do that much better than I.”
“Well, let me explain. They are all so eager for this marriage.”
“I imagine Lord Carlton is.”
“Oh, not only him. It’s my mother and father and the whole family.
There’s a big clan of Marlingtons. They are everywhere and they are all terribly poor and they all have the family name and estates and things to keep going. All my life I have heard nothing but fears about dry rot in the woodwork and death watch beetle in the roof. I just accepted that it would always be like that until I discovered they were all relying on me.
“Henrietta will make a good marriage,” they used to say. Really, I was brought up with that purpose in mind. Money hard to find was invested in me. The finest finishing school in the world, trained in all the arts of allurement. I dance, I sing, I play the pianoforte; but most important of all, I have had to learn the art of conversation . not serious conversation, the light-hearted, rather frivolous kind how to coax and wheedle and assume complete adoration of the men around me, providing of course they are influential enough and I believe that means rich enough to warrant my attention. “
I smiled.
“I think a lot of young ladies are brought up with such aims and so-called ideals.”
“You weren’t?”
“Mine was not a normal upbringing. I was in India, you see, and that made a difference; and when I was in England I went to school and spent my holidays with some relations in a country rectory very humble compared with the society in which you obviously move.”
“Lucky Miss Pleydell! They were just waiting for me to come out. I don’t know why they should leave it to me to work the miracle.”
“You are very attractive.”
She grimaced.
“I’m not really pretty, if you take a close look.”
“It’s all that vitality, that gaiety. I suppose attractiveness is not so much a matter of features as of personality. They did a good job at your charm school or perhaps they didn’t have to because it was there already.”
“I’m beginning to wish I had been born with a squint and spots.”
“Please don’t despise the gifts the good fairies bestowed on you. They are bound to come in useful although sometimes they lead to difficulties. But go on.”
“Well, I came out most expensively. They invested in me, sure that they would get good dividends. There was a rather nice young man. I liked him very much. Good family … but no money … so I was steered away from him. And then Tom Carlton came on the scene. He was the answer to their prayers. He is one of the richest men in the country. Made a fortune and acquired a peerage, and what should he be looking for but a wife who could supply the background. The Marlingtons could do that all right. We could trace it right back to the Conqueror, or almost. It was to be the most convenient of marriages. They say it is the perfect union of the Carlton millions and the blue blood of the Marlingtons.”
“And the one person in the family who does not see it as ideal is the prospective bride.”
She looked at me and nodded.
“At first I thought it was wonderful. You see, Tom was so pleased with me. He is so generous and it was bliss not to hear all that growling about damp and dry rot. For a week or so I really was radiantly happy. We were saved and I had saved us all.”
“And then you realized that there is more to marriage than family pride.”
“Exactly. And I have been wondering ever since what I could do about it.”
“Why do you think I can help you to make up your mind? I am a stranger. This is only the third time we have met. I know nothing except what you have told me.”
“I have been frank with you. Will you be with me? I swear that not a word of what you tell me shall be passed on by me.”
She was dramatic in her moods, changing in seconds; a little while ago she had seemed almost tragic, the sacrificial lamb on the altar of family pride; now her eyes were flashing with excitement. She was the conspirator.
I found her charming. I could understand why the astute Lord Carlton, who must have known it was his fortune which made him so desirable to the Marlingtons, had become a victim to her charm.
I said: “I do not want my affairs talked about.”
“I will keep silent. I swear I will.”
“All right. I did marry Aubrey St. Clare. The marriage wasn’t successful. I had a little boy. I stayed with my husband because of him. When he died, I left.”
“You left? That was a brave thing to do.”
“There was nothing brave about it. I could not stay there, so I came away. I was fortunate. I had enough money from my father to live on not extravagantly but with a degree of comfort and that is what I am doing.”
“I have an income, too. The family think it is a pittance, but I dare say it is not all that small… only if you want to support a big house with a retinue of servants and prop up leaking roofs and fight the death watch beetle. If you were in my place, what would you do?”
I lifted my shoulders.
“How can I say? I don’t know all the details.
There must be a great deal more to this than you have told me. “
I think that was a fateful evening . last night. “
“Oh?”
“Yes, meeting you … and all that talk about Florence Nightingale.
I’ve met the Nightingales. Not Florence, but her mother and father. I didn’t take much notice of them. It would have been different if Florence had been there. I am sure that would have been most exciting.
Well, anyway, the talk last night made me feel that I could break out of the trap if I had the courage of people like you and Miss Nightingale. “
“Do you mean you want to break off your engagement?”
She nodded.
“If you feel like that, you should.”
“You see, at first I thought of all the rejoicing in the family and how pleased Tom was, and how nice it was to stop everyone worrying about what this and that cost… but then I thought of the things I should have to endure. Well, he’s very nice, but sometimes the way he looks at me to tell you frankly, Miss Pleydell, I feel a little scared, no, not a little bit, a lot. And then … and then …”
Memories were coming back; awakening in that bedroom in Venice and seeing Aubrey standing by the bed. How did one know what secret desires could take possession of people? I looked at this girl fresh, young and so vitally attractive. What had happened to me could scar one for a lifetime . perhaps for ever; it could colour one’s outlook on life; it could warp one’s healthy and natural instincts.
I knew that Henrietta should break off her engagement because when I looked into her lovely face I could see the terror peeping out.
She was looking at me earnestly, almost pleadingly.
I said: “It seems strange that you should come to me with your problem. You hardly know me. There must be someone else … someone near you.”
“Who? My parents? My parents’ friends? They think it is the catch of the season. They say there is not a debutante who isn’t green with envy because I have captured the prize. You know how people are. He’s highly respected. He’s a lord a title he earned for himself, which should be applauded, but as you know, people think more of those who have had their titles handed down. He’s a friend of important people like Lord Derby and Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston. Prince Albert approves of him because he brings a lot of business to the country. I ought to be honoured and nattered, and I am. But I am scared, more scared than flattered.”