Part 16 (1/2)
”Of course I am;--one has to be afraid. A single lady can't go about and do just as she likes, as a man can do, or a married woman.”
”I don't know about a man; but I think a single woman ought to be able to do more what she likes than a married woman. Suppose Mrs Stumfold found that I had got old Lady Ruff to meet her, what could she do to me?”
Old Lady Ruff was supposed to be the wickedest old card-player in all Littlebath, and there were strange stories afloat of the things she had done. There were Stumfoldians who declared that she had been seen through the blinds teaching her own maid piquet on a Sunday afternoon; but any horror will get itself believed nowadays. How could they have known that it was not beggar-my-neighbour? But piquet was named because it is supposed in the Stumfoldian world to be the wickedest of all games.
”I don't suppose she'd do much,” said Miss Baker; ”no doubt she would be very much offended.”
”Why shouldn't I try to convert Lady Ruff?”
”She's over eighty, my dear.”
”But I suppose she's not past all hope. The older one is the more one ought to try. But, of course, I'm only joking about her. Would Miss Todd come if you were to ask her?”
”Perhaps she would, but I don't think she'd be comfortable; or if she were, she'd make the others uncomfortable. She always does exactly what she pleases.”
”That's just why I think I should like her. I wish I dared to do what I pleased! We all of us are such cowards. Only that I don't dare, I'd go off to Australia and marry a sheep farmer.”
”You would not like him when you'd got him;--you'd find him very rough.”
”I shouldn't mind a bit about his being rough. I'd marry a shoe-black to-morrow if I thought I could make him happy, and he could make me happy.”
”But it wouldn't make you happy.”
”Ah! that's just what we don't know. I shan't marry a shoe-black, because I don't dare. So you think I'd better not ask Miss Todd.
Perhaps she wouldn't get on well with Mr Maguire.”
”I had them both together once, my dear, and she made herself quite unbearable. You've no idea what kind of things she can say.”
”I should have thought Mr Maguire would have given her as good as she brought,” said Miss Mackenzie.
”So he did; and then Miss Todd got up and left him, saying out loud, before all the company, that it was not fair for him to come and preach sermons in such a place as that. I don't think they have ever met since.”
All this made Miss Mackenzie very thoughtful. She had thrown herself into the society of the saints, and now there seemed to be no escape for her; she could not be wicked even if she wished it. Having got into her convent, and, as it were, taken the vows of her order, she could not escape from it.
”That Mr Rubb that I told you of is coming down here,” she said, still speaking to Miss Baker of her party.
”Oh, dear! will he be here when you have your friends here?”
”That's what I intended; but I don't think I shall ask anybody at all. It is so stupid always seeing the same people.”
”Mr Rubb is--is--is--?”
”Yes; Mr Rubb is a partner in my brother's house, and sells oilcloth, and things of that sort, and is not by any means aristocratic. I know what you mean.”
”Don't be angry with me, my dear.”
”Angry! I am not a bit angry. Why should I be angry? A man who keeps a shop is not, I suppose, a gentleman. But then, you know, I don't care about gentlemen,--about any gentleman, or any gentlemen.”