Part 52 (1/2)
”And a good presence.”
He bowed again.
”You are not quite handsome, but there is an aristocratic, well-bred look about you that would recommend you to any lady--and I mean you to marry a lady.”
”Yes, by all means. Pray don't find me a young person who might pa.s.s for a relative of the great Elbraham.”
”My good boy, there is no such party in the field; and if there were, I should not allow you to try and turn up that haughty aristocratic nose at her. A hundred thousand pounds, dear Arturo, would gild over a great many blemishes.”
”True, O queen!” he said, smiling.
”As I said before, let us understand one another. You must not be too particular. Suppose the lady chances to be old?”
Litton made a grimace.
”And rich--very rich?”
”That would make amends,” he said with a smile.
”I could marry you myself, Arturo,” she continued, looking very much attenuated and hawk-like as she smiled at him in a laughing way.
”Why not?” he cried eagerly, as the richly-furnished home and income opened out to his mind ease and comfort for life.
”Because I am too old,” she said, smiling at the young man's impetuosity.
”Oh, no,” he cried; ”you would be priceless in my eyes.”
”Hold your tongue, Arturo, and don't be a baby,” said her ladys.h.i.+p. ”I tell you I am too old to be foolish enough to marry. There are plenty of older women who inveigh against matrimony, and profess to have grown too sensible and too wise to embark in it, who would give their ears to win a husband.”
”Why should not Lady Littletown be placed in this list?” said Litton meaningly.
”Because I tell you she is too old in a worldly way. No, my dear boy, when an elderly woman marries, it is generally because she is infatuated with the idea of possessing a young husband. She thinks for the moment that he woos her for her worldly store; but she is so flattered by his attentions that these outweigh all else, and she jumps at the opportunity of changing her state.”
”Again, then,” he whispered impressively, ”why should not this apply to Lady Littletown?”
”Silence, foolish boy!” she cried, menacing him again with the scissors, and holding up her flower-basket as if to catch the snipped-off head.
”I tell you I am too old in a worldly way, When a matter-of-fact woman reaches my years, and knows that she has gradually been lessening her capital in the bank of life, she tries to get as much as possible in the way of enjoyment out of what is left.”
”Exactly,” he cried eagerly.
”She takes matters coolly and weighs them fairly before her. 'If,' she says, 'I take the contents of this scale I shall get so much pleasure.
If I choose the contents of this other scale, I shall again obtain so much.'”
”Well, what then?” said Litton, for her ladys.h.i.+p paused in the act of decapitating a magnificent j.a.pan lily.
”What then? Foolish boy! Why, of course she chooses the scale that will give her most pleasure.”
”Naturally,” he said.