Part 7 (2/2)
”What a pity, Miss Manvers, the fas.h.i.+on has gone out of selling oneself to the devil.”
”Good gracious, Mr. Grey!”
”On my honour, I am quite serious. It does appear to me to be a very great pity. What a capital plan for younger brothers! It is a kind of thing I have been trying to do all my life, and never could succeed. I began at school with toasted cheese and a pitchfork; and since then I have invoked, with all the eloquence of Goethe, the evil one in the solitude of the Hartz, but without success. I think I should make an excellent bargain with him: of course I do not mean that ugly vulgar savage with a fiery tail. Oh, no! Satan himself for me, a perfect gentleman! Or Belial: Belial would be the most delightful. He is the fine genius of the Inferno, I imagine, the Beranger of Pandemonium.”
”I really cannot listen to such nonsense one moment longer. What would you have if Belial were here?”
”Let us see. Now, you shall act the spirit, and I, Vivian Grey. I wish we had a short-hand writer here to take down the Incantation Scene. We would send it to Arnold. Commencons: Spirit! I will have a fair castle.”
The lady bowed.
”I will have a palace in town.”
The lady bowed.
”I will have a fair wife. Why, Miss Manvers, you forget to bow!”
”I really beg your pardon!”
”Come, this is a novel way of making an offer, and, I hope, a successful one.”
”Julia, my dear,” cried a voice in the veranda, ”Julia, my dear, I want you to walk with me.”
”Say you are engaged with the Marchioness,” whispered Vivian, with a low but distinct--voice; his eyes fixed on the table, and his lips not appearing to move.
”Mamma, I am--”
”I want you immediately and particularly, Julia,” cried Lady Louisa, in an earnest voice.
”I am coming, I am coming. You see I must go.”
CHAPTER X
”Confusion on that old hag! Her eye looked evil on me, at the very moment! Although a pretty wife is really the destruction of a young man's prospects, still, in the present case, the niece of my friend, my patron, high family, perfectly unexceptionable, &c. &c. &c. Such blue eyes! upon my honour, this must be an exception to the general rule,”
Here a light step attracted his attention, and, on turning round, he found Mrs. Felix Lorraine at his elbow.
”Oh! you are here, Mr. Grey, acting the solitaire in the park! I want your opinion about a pa.s.sage in 'Herman and Dorothea.'”
”My opinion is always at your service; but if the pa.s.sage is not perfectly clear to Mrs. Felix Lorraine, it will be perfectly obscure, I am convinced, to me.”
”Ah! yes, of course. Oh, dear! after all my trouble, I have forgotten my book. How mortifying! Well, I will show it to you after dinner: adieu!
and, by-the-bye, Mr. Grey, as I am here, I may as well advise you not to spoil all the Marquess's timber, by carving a certain person's name on his park trees. I think your plans in that quarter are admirable. I have been walking with Lady Louisa the whole morning, and you cannot think how I puffed you! Courage, Cavalier, and we shall soon be connected, not only in friends.h.i.+p, but in blood.”
The next morning, at breakfast, Vivian was surprised to find that the Manvers party was suddenly about to leave the Castle. All were disconsolate at their departure: for there was to be a grand entertainment at Chateau Desir that very day, but particularly Mrs.
<script>