Part 36 (1/2)
”No impertinence at all, sir. But, unfortunately, we have no intentions in common. We are engaged to be married, and I want to keep my engagement.”
”And she wants to break hers. Well, I cannot but say that she is the wiser of the two.”
”I don't know that her wisdom goes quite so far as that. She is content to abide the evil day; only she would postpone it.”
”That is to say, she has some prudence. Are you aware that I have proposed to make a considerable addition to her fortune--to hers, mind--on condition that she would postpone her marriage till next summer?”
”I did hear something about some sum of money--that you had spoken to Miss Baker about it, I believe; but I quite forget the particulars.”
”You are very indifferent as to money matters, Mr. Barrister.”
”I am indifferent as to the money matters of other people, sir. I had no intention of marrying Miss Waddington for her money before I knew that she was your granddaughter; nor have I now that I do know it.”
”For her money! If you marry her for more money than her own fortune, and perhaps a couple of thousands added to it, you are likely to be mistaken.”
”I shall never make any mistake of that kind. As far as I am concerned, you are quite welcome, for me, to keep your two thousand pounds.”
”That's kind of you.”
”I would marry her to-morrow without it. I am not at all sure that I will marry her next year with it. If you exercise any authority over her as her grandfather, I wish you would tell her so, as coming from me.”
”Upon my word you carry it high as a lover.”
”Not too high, I hope, as a man.”
”Well, George, remember this once for all”--and now the old man spoke in a much more serious voice--”I will not interfere at all as her grandfather. Nor will I have it known that I am such. Do you understand that?”
”I understand, sir, that it is not your wish that it should be generally talked of.”
”And I trust that wish has been, and will be complied with by you.”
This last speech was not put in the form of a question; but George understood that it was intended to elicit from him a promise for the future and an a.s.surance as to the past.
”I have mentioned the circ.u.mstance to one intimate friend with whom I was all but obliged to discuss the matter--”
”Obliged to discuss my private concerns, sir!”
”With one friend, sir; with two, indeed; I think--indeed, I fear I have mentioned it to three.”
”Oh! to three! obliged to discuss your own most private concerns as well as mine with three intimate friends! You are lucky, sir, to have so many intimate friends. As my concerns have been made known to them as well as your own, may I ask who they are?”
George then gave up the three names. They were those of Mr. Harcourt, the Rev. Arthur Wilkinson, and Miss Adela Gauntlet. His uncle was very angry. Had he utterly denied the fact of his ever having mentioned the matter to any one, and had it been afterwards discovered that such denial was false, Mr. Bertram would not have been by much so angry. The offence and the lie together, but joined with the fear and deference to which the lie would have testified, would be nothing so black as the offence without the lie, and without the fear, and without the deference.
His uncle was very angry, but on that day he said nothing further on the matter; neither on the next day did he; but on the third day, just as George was about to leave Hadley, he said, in his usual bantering tone, ”Don't have any more intimate friends, George, as far as my private matters are concerned.”
”No, sir, I will not,” said George.
It was in consequence of what Mr. Bertram had then learnt that he became acquainted with Mr. Harcourt. As Mr. Harcourt had heard this about his grandchild, he thought it better to see that learned gentleman. He did see him; and, as has been before stated, they became intimate with each other.
And so ended the first of these two years.
CHAPTER III.