Part 23 (1/2)
”And without anything particular to say,” she retorted, adding hurriedly--”However, that's not the point. Sir Henry, you care for your daughter?”
”More than for anything in the world!” was his grave rejoinder.
”I know it--I know it,” she answered, and the colour deepened in her cheek. ”Well, now, men are blind as bats, I think, in all matters of affection; but have you not lately noticed an alteration in Helen's manner, spirits, in her very looks? Can't you see there's something wrong with the girl? Can't you guess what it is?”
He looked startled, disturbed, distressed.
”Not the lungs, Mrs. Lascelles!” he exclaimed. ”She runs up-stairs like a lap-wing, and will waltz for twenty minutes together at a spin. There can't be much amiss. Not her lungs, surely; nor her heart!”
Mrs. Lascelles laughed.
”Yes, her heart,” she repeated, ”though not in the sense _you_ mean. Not anatomically, but sentimentally, I fear; which is sometimes almost as bad.”
He looked immensely relieved.
”Oh! she'll get over that,” said he, putting more sugar in his tea.
”She's a sensible girl, Helen, with a good deal of self-respect, and what I should call 'mind.' No whims, no fancies, in any way, and not the least romantic.”
”Like her papa,” observed Mrs. Lascelles maliciously.
”I trust in heaven _not_!” he replied, with unusual energy. ”Helen is as much my superior in intellect as she is in moral qualities. She has talent, energy, self-control, and self-denial; none of which, I fear, can she inherit from _me_. Her sincerity, too, and trustfulness are like a child's, and she is as fond of me now as she was at two years old. You don't think she _really_ cares for anybody, do you, Mrs. Lascelles? It might be a serious thing for her if she did, and I had rather everything I have in the world went to ruin than that Helen should be made unhappy.”
”I do,” answered Mrs. Lascelles. ”I think she cares for Frank Vanguard.”
”Confound him!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sir Henry, upsetting his tea-cup. ”A presuming young jacka.s.s! And not over steady, I'm afraid,” he added, reverting in his own mind to certain memories connected with supper, cigarettes, champagne, three o'clock in the morning, and Kate Cremorne.
”Now that's so like a _man_!” said his hostess. ”You want to keep your treasure all to yourself, and are furious with everybody who agrees with you in appreciating its value. Captain Vanguard is young, good-looking, a gentleman, and not badly off. Why shouldn't your daughter like him, and why shouldn't he like your daughter? Sir Henry, I needn't ask if you believe in my inclination, do you also believe in my ability to serve you?”
”Certainly,” was the polite reply. ”n.o.body is half so clever, and, besides, you are a perfect woman of the world.”
”Will you be guided by my advice?”
”What do you propose?” was the natural answer to so comprehensive a question.
”Get Helen out of town at once. Carry her off to Windsor. I can take upon myself to offer you The Lilies. Uncle Joseph will lend the cottage to me, or any of my friends, for as long as I like. Give her plenty of amus.e.m.e.nt, but no dissipation. Early hours, a gla.s.s of port wine and a biscuit every day at twelve, and don't let her stay out after sun-down.
In three weeks the girl will be in rude health, or I know nothing of a woman's const.i.tution and ailments.”
”But what has all this to do with Captain Vanguard?” asked Sir Henry, fixing in his mind, not without effort, the whole regimen, particularly the port wine at twelve o'clock.
”Oh! blindest of baronets!” laughed Mrs. Lascelles. ”Lady Sycamore, or any other chaperon, would have seen it at once. Captain Vanguard is quartered at Windsor. Helen is staying at The Lilies. The young people meet every day. A mutual attachment, already, I firmly believe, in the bud, comes to maturity. General _tableau_! You give your blessing, and will become, I hope, more respectable as a father-in-law than you have hitherto been in other relations of life.”
”I'll do anything for Helen--anything!” said Sir Henry vehemently. ”And how can I thank you enough, Mrs. Lascelles, for your kindness and the interest you take in my girl? You'll come down every Sat.u.r.day, and stay till Monday, to see how your prescription answers, of course?”
”Not the least of course,” she replied. ”Jin and I mean to take ourselves off to Brighton by the end of the week. If the fine weather lasts, we shall very likely go on to Dieppe.”
This, then, was her kindly scheme: to get Miss Ross out of Frank Vanguard's way to leave the coast clear for Helen; and then, having settled matters to her own satisfaction, weigh Sir Henry deliberately against Goldthred, and take whichever she considered most deserving of herself.
Mrs. Lascelles never doubted her power over any one on whom she chose to exert it, and believed that, like a spider, she need only spin her web in order to surround the desired bluebottle inextricably with its toils.