Part 23 (1/2)
”Ah! now you are going to ride your hobby, my dear Adriana. On that subject we never can agree; were I an heiress, I should have as little objection to be married for my fortune as my face. Husbands, as I have heard, do not care for the latter too long. Have more confidence in yourself, Adriana. If Lord Roehampton wishes to marry you, it is that he is pleased with you personally, that he appreciates your intelligence, your culture, your accomplishments, your sweet disposition, and your gentle nature. If in addition to these gifts you have wealth, and even great wealth, Lord Roehampton will not despise it, will not--for I wish to put it frankly--be uninfluenced by the circ.u.mstances, for Lord Roehampton is a wise man; but he would not marry you if he did not believe that you would make for him a delightful companion in life, that you would adorn his circle and ill.u.s.trate his name.”
”Ah! I see you are all in the plot against me,” said Adriana. ”I have no friend.”
”My dear Adriana, I think you are unreasonable; I could say even unkind.”
”Oh! pardon me, dear Myra,” said Adriana, ”but I really am so very unhappy.”
”About what? You are your own mistress in this matter. If you do not like to marry Lord Roehampton, n.o.body will attempt to control you. What does it signify what Lady Montfort says? or anybody else, except your own parents, who desire nothing but your happiness? I should never have mentioned Lord Roehampton to you had you not introduced the subject yourself. And all that I meant to say was, what I repeat, that your creed that no one can wish to marry you except for your wealth is a morbid conviction, and must lead to unhappiness; that I do not believe that Lord Roehampton is influenced in his overture, if he make one, by any unworthy motive, and that any woman whose heart is disengaged should not lightly repudiate such an advance from such a man, by which, at all events, she should feel honoured.”
”But my heart is engaged,” said Adriana in an almost solemn tone.
”Oh! that is quite a different thing!” said Myra, turning pale.
”Yes!” said Adriana; ”I am devoted to one whose name I cannot now mention, perhaps will never mention, but I am devoted to him. Yes!”
she added with fire, ”I am not altogether so weak a thing as the Lady Montforts and some other persons seem to think me--I can feel and decide for myself, and it shall never be said of me that I purchased love.”
CHAPTER XLIV
There was to be no great party at Hainault; Lord Roehampton particularly wished that there should be no fine folks asked, and especially no amba.s.sadors. All that he wanted was to enjoy the fresh air, and to ramble in the forest, of which he had heard so much, with the young ladies.
”And, by the by, Miss Ferrars,” said Mr. Neuchatel, ”we must let what we were talking about the other day drop. Adriana has been with me quite excited about something Lady Montfort said to her. I soothed her and a.s.sured her she should do exactly as she liked, and that neither I nor her mother had any other wishes on such a subject than her own. The fact is, I answered Lady Montfort originally only half in earnest. If the thing might have happened, I should have been content--but it really never rested on my mind, because such matters must always originate with my daughter. Unless they come from her, with me they are mere fancies.
But now I want you to help me in another matter, if not more grave, more businesslike. My lord must be amused, although it is a family party.
He likes his rubber; that we can manage. But there must be two or three persons that he is not accustomed to meet, and yet who will interest him. Now, do you know, Miss Ferrars, whom I think of asking?”
”Not I, my dear sir.”
”What do you think of the colonel?” said Mr. Neuchatel, looking in her face with a rather laughing eye.
”Well, he is very agreeable,” said Myra, ”and many would think interesting, and if Lord Roehampton does not know him, I think he would do very well.”
”Well, but Lord Roehampton knows all about him,” said Mr. Neuchatel.
”Well, that is an advantage,” said Myra.
”I do not know,” said Mr. Neuchatel. ”Life is a very curious thing, eh, Miss Ferrars? One cannot ask one person to meet another even in one's own home, without going through a sum of moral arithmetic.”
”Is it so?” said Myra.
”Well, Miss Ferrars,” said Mr. Neuchatel, ”I want your advice and I want your aid; but then it is a long story, at which I am rather a bad hand,”
and Mr. Neuchatel hesitated. ”You know,” he said, suddenly resuming, ”you once asked me who Colonel Albert was.”
”But I do not ask you now,” said Myra, ”because I know.”
”Hah, hah!” exclaimed Mr. Neuchatel, much surprised.
”And what you want to know is,” continued Myra, ”whether Lord Roehampton would have any objection to meet Prince Florestan?”
”That is something; but that is comparatively easy. I think I can manage that. But when they meet--that is the point. But, in the first place, I should like very much to know how you became acquainted with the secret.”