Volume Ii Part 8 (1/2)
”What a sad minority do I stand in!” said Stapylton, with an effort to smile very far from successful. ”Will not Miss Josephine Barrington have generosity enough to aid the weaker side?”
”Not if it be the worst cause,” interposed Dinah. ”My niece needs not to be told she must be just before she is generous.”
”Then it is to your own generosity I will appeal,” said Stapylton, turning to her; ”and I will ask you to ascribe some, at least, of my bitterness to the sorrow I feel at being thus summoned away. Believe me it is no light matter to leave this place and its company.”
”But only for a season, and a very brief season too, I trust,” said Barrington. ”You are going away in our debt, remember.”
”It is a loser's privilege, all the world over, to withdraw when he has lost enough,” said Stapylton, with a sad smile towards Miss Dinah; and though the speech was made in the hope it might elicit a contradiction, none came, and a very awkward silence ensued.
”You will reach Dublin to-night, I suppose?” said Withering, to relieve the painful pause in the conversation.
”It will be late,--after midnight, perhaps.”
”And embark the next morning?”
”Two of our squadrons have sailed already; the others will, of course, follow to-morrow.”
”And young Conyers,” broke in Miss Dinah,--”he will, I suppose, accompany this--what shall I call it?--this raid?”
”Yes, madam. Am I to convey to him your compliments upon the first opportunity to flesh his maiden sword?”
”You are to do nothing of the kind, sir; but tell him from me not to forget that the angry pa.s.sions of a starving mult.i.tude are not to be confounded with the vindictive hate of our natural enemies.”
”Natural enemies, my dear Miss Barrington! I hope you cannot mean that there exists anything so monstrous in humanity as a natural enemy?”
”I do, sir; and I mean all those whose jealousy of us ripens into hatred, and who would spill their heart's blood to see us humbled. When there exists a people like this, and who at every fresh outbreak of a war with us have carried into the new contest all the bitter animosities of long past struggles as debts to be liquidated, I call these natural enemies; and, if you prefer a shorter word for it, I call them Frenchmen.”
”Dinah, Dinah!”
”Peter, Peter! don't interrupt me. Major Stapylton has thought to tax me with a blunder, but I accept it as a boast!”
”Madam, I am proud to be vanquished by you,” said Stapylton, bowing low.
”And I trust, sir,” said she, continuing her speech, and as if heedless of his interruption, ”that no similarity of name will make you behave at Peterloo--if that be the name--as though you were at Waterloo.”
”Upon my life!” cried he, with a saucy laugh, ”I don't know how I am to win your good opinion, except it be by tearing off my epaulettes, and putting myself at the head of the mob.”
”You know very little of my sister, Major Stapylton,” said Barrington, ”or you would scarcely have selected that mode of cultivating her favor.”
”There is a popular belief that ladies always side with the winning cause,” said Stapylton, affecting a light and easy manner; ”so I must do my best to be successful. May I hope I carry your _good_ wishes away with me?” said he, in a lower tone to Josephine.
”I hope that n.o.body will hurt you, and you hurt n.o.body,” said she, laughingly.
”And this, I take it, is about as much sympathy as ever attends a man on such a campaign. Mr. Barrington, will you grant me two minutes of conversation in your own room?” And, with a bow of acquiescence, Barrington led the way to his study.
”I ought to have antic.i.p.ated your request, Major Stapyl-ton,” said Barrington, when they found themselves alone. ”I owe you a reply to your letter, but the simple fact is, I do not know what answer to give it; for while most sensible of the honor you intend us, I feel still there is much to be explained on both sides. We know scarcely anything of each other, and though I am conscious of the generosity which prompts a man with _your_ prospects and in _your_ position to ally himself with persons in _ours_, yet I owe it to myself to say, it hangs upon a contingency to restore us to wealth and station. Even a portion of what I claim from the East India Company would make my granddaughter one of the richest heiresses in England.”
Stapylton gave a cold, a very cold smile, in reply to this speech. It might mean that he was incredulous or indifferent, or it might imply that the issue was one which need not have been introduced into the case at all. Whatever its signification, Barrington felt hurt by it, and hastily said,--
”Not that I have any need to trouble you with these details: it is rather my province to ask for information regarding _your_ circ.u.mstances than to enter upon a discussion of _ours_.”
”I am quite ready to give you the very fullest and clearest,--I mean to yourself personally, or to your sister; for, except where the lawyer intervenes of necessity and _de droit_, I own that I resent his presence as an insult. I suppose few of us are devoid of certain family circ.u.mstances which it would be more agreeable to deal with in confidence; and though, perhaps, I am as fortunate as most men in this respect, there are one or two small matters on which I would ask your attention. These, however, are neither important nor pressing. My first care is to know,--and I hope I am not peremptory in asking it,--have I your consent to the proposition contained in my letter; am I at liberty to address Miss Barrington?”