Part 38 (2/2)
”Has she been leaning upon your slender purse?” he asked not unkindly.
”Why--she saves money by me and I increase her social importance. Of course she had furniture, but it was old and--and--”
I could not find the words to explain to a man my horror of ugliness. He wouldn't have understood.
”Well, well, it makes no difference now. I must arrange matters for you, and I think you will agree, upon reflection, that the first step must be to give up whatever we can.”
”But, Uncle--” I tried to speak calmly, to show him the situation--”Mrs.
Whitney is a Van Dam, and they befriended me when--why, they would never forgive me; it would be ruin. And even from the practical standpoint--you wouldn't like to have your lawbooks sold, would you? Well, people have introduced me--and pretty furniture and pretty clothes and not to have any scandal or any talk--oh, you can see!”
”In the light of reports that reach me,” said the Judge, ”I might suppose that you”--he hesitated a moment, then continued, in an attempt at a bantering manner, ”that you refer to your luxuries as preliminary to--ah-- matrimony, which is said to be the only gainful occupation that my s.e.x leaves almost exclusively to yours, and in which fine clothing is undoubtedly an adjuvant. But observation leads me to think that it is a business less profitable than is often imagined. Hm!”
He drummed on the table, and when he continued, he seemed talking to gain time, considering what he wished to say.
”I grant you,” he said with his c.u.mbrous playfulness, ”that the sensibility of flesh and blood to beauty is as broad a fact as the effect of heat or cold. It is so universally recognised that we take a pretty girl, like original sin or the curse of labour, as a _chose jugee_.
Her sway must have begun with the glacial drifters and the kitchen middeners and the Engis skull man, when they and the rest of the paleoliths were battling with the dodo and the dinornis and the didifornis, and had no time for the cult of beauty except by proxy. Did it ever occur to you that we men drove a hard bargain with your s.e.x when we compelled you to beauty, made you carry the topknots and the tail- feathers? Men propose marriage, women adorn themselves to listen. Let women choose their mates, and they might go as plain as peahens; and men would strut about, displaying wattles, combs and argus-eyed plumes.”
”Women would be less beautiful if they proposed?”
”Some could not be, I fear.” He pulled down his brows, considering the proposition, then shook his head positively, with a little sigh. ”You will remember--was it not Darwin who said that women, in order to attract men, borrow the plumage of male birds, which these have acquired to please the females of their kind? Beauty must be the first law of life to the s.e.x that has not the privilege of choosing. Under the circ.u.mstances, it is surprising how much of plainness women have preserved. Possibly because of the extraordinary directions which beauty culture may take. Burton a.s.serts that the Somali choose wives by ranging the women in line for inspection; she wins a husband of note who projects farthest _a tergo_. Yet among famous Greek statues there is also a steatopygous Venus.”
The office boy came to the door, and his knock woke Uncle out of his revery. He excused himself to his caller, and, returning to me, went on:--
”I have been--ah--I admit, rather evading the personal question. I wish, without seeking embarra.s.sing confidences, to remind you that young people are apt to think bad matters--other than business matters--worse than they are. I am not asking questions, but, when I was younger, cynicism usually hid but ill the scars of heartache. Do not, I pray you, throw yourself away in the gloom of momentary unhappiness.”
Did he guess--about Ned? That I was the one most hurt there? He should never know that I winced. I shrugged my shoulders, ignoring his fatherly glance, and faced him with a stare meant to be brazen.
”You do not at the present time believe in sentiment?” he said. ”Then I shall adapt my argument to your whim of practicality, and speak of the rumours which connect your name with that of young Lord Strathay.”
”Oh; that boy!”
”I presume you are right; he does seem to have fallen deeply in love with you. But--if indeed, you are dazzled by the glamour of a t.i.tle--do not be too confident of his fealty. I know men better than you know them, my dear. Man loves beauty, but he does not always want to marry it. The rare white swan is admired, but the little brown partridge, clucking as she marshals her covey of chicks, is the type of the marrying woman. Again, no man is master of himself. That Strathay wishes to marry you, I can understand; but, perhaps, when he is not under the spell of your presence, he falls to wondering how you will p.r.o.nounce the social s.h.i.+bboleths, and may let 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would.' It is idle to deny that, admitting as one must the existence of lines of social cleavage in modern life, it is often a mistake to overstep their boundaries in matrimony; though as to international alliances--”
”Oh,” I said, interrupting his prosings with a light laugh, ”you mustn't take the matter _au serieux_.”
”I take it so because it is serious.” The Judge's eyes and his tone were very grave. ”Forgive me if I remind you that these _obiter dicta_ have grown out of a discussion of your money affairs, wherein you are bankrupt. If--and I ask your pardon if the supposition does you wrong--if you are relying on a brilliant marriage to help you out of financial difficulties--”
He hesitated a moment, then went on slowly: ”Perhaps I ought to warn you that, if at any time this does become a serious matter, you will have powerful opposition. I had not intended to tell you--though now I deem it best--that Mr. Stephen Allardyce Poultney has lately done me the honour to call; and--”
”Lord Strathay's cousin?” I thought he could hear the thrumming of my heart. This was why he had beaten so long about the bus.h.!.+ ”Was he--was he speaking about me?”
I felt a sudden chill of apprehension, and almost feared to hear the answer.
”He was; he came to the point with a refres.h.i.+ng directness worthy of a business man, and said that he wanted to know all about you.”
”And you--”
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