Part 53 (1/2)
”This is a matter I leave entirely to themselves; if -352-- Lawless wishes to marry f.a.n.n.y, and she likes him well enough to accept him, and his parents approve of the arrangement, I shall make no objection: it would be a very good match for her.”
”Umph! yes--she would make a very nice addition to his stud,” returned Mr. Frampton, in a more sarcastic tone than I had ever heard him use before. ”What do you suppose are the girl's own wishes? is she willing to be Empress of the Stable?”
”Really, sir, you ask me a question which I am quite unable to answer; young, ladies are usually reserved upon such subjects, and f.a.n.n.y is especially so; but from my own observations, I am inclined to think that she likes him.”
”Umph! dare say she does; women are always fools in these cases--men too, for that matter--or else they would take pattern by me, and continue in a state of single blessedness,” then came an aside, ”Single wretchedness more likely, n.o.body to care about one--nothing to love--die in a ditch like a beggar's dog, without a pocket-handkerchief wetted for one--there's single blessedness for you! ride in a hea.r.s.e, and have some fat fool chuckling in the sleeve of his black coat over one's hard-earned money. n.o.body shall do that with mine, though; for I'll leave it all to build union work-houses and encourage the slave-trade, by way of revenging myself on society at large. Wonder why I said that, when I don't think it! just like me--umph!”
”I am not at all sure but that this may prove a mere vision of our own too lively imaginations, after all,” replied I, ”or that Lawless looks upon f.a.n.n.y in any other light than as the sister of his old friend, and an agreeable girl to talk and laugh with; but if it should turn out otherwise, I should be sorry to think that it is a match which will not meet with your approval, sir.”
”Oh! I shall approve--I always approve of everything--I dare say he'll make a capital husband--he's very kind to his dogs and horses. Umph!
silly boy, silly girl--when she could easily do better, too. Umph 1 just like me, bothering myself about other people, when I might leave it alone--silly girl though, very!”
So saying, Mr. Frampton walked away, grunting like a whole drove of pigs, as was his wont when annoyed.
The next morning I was aroused from an uneasy sleep by the sun s.h.i.+ning brightly through my shutters, and, springing out of bed, and throwing open the window, I perceived that it was one of those lovely winter days -353-- which appear sent to a.s.sure us that fogs, frost, and snow will not last for ever, but that Nature has brighter things in store for us, if we will bide her time patiently. To think of lying in bed on such a morning was out of the question, so, dressing hastily, I threw on a shooting jacket, and sallied forth for a stroll. As I wandered listlessly through the park, admiring the h.o.a.r-frost which glittered like diamonds in the early suns.h.i.+ne, clothing the brave old limbs of the time-honoured fathers of the forest with a fabric of silver tissue, the conversation I had held with Mr. Frampton about f.a.n.n.y and Lawless recurred to my mind. Strange that Harry Oaklands and Mr. Frampton--men so different, yet alike in generous feeling and honourable principle--should both evidently disapprove of such a union: was I myself, then, so blinded by ideas of the worldly advantages it held forth, that I was unable to perceive its unfitness? Would Lawless really prize her, as Tennyson has so well expressed it in his finest poem, as
”Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse”?
and was I about to sacrifice my sister's happiness for rank and fortune, those world-idols which, stripped of the supposit.i.tious attributes bestowed upon them by the bigotry of their wors.h.i.+ppers, appear, in their true worth-lesaness, empty breath and perishable dross? But most probably there was no cause for uneasiness; after all, I was very likely worrying myself most unnecessarily: what proof was there that Lawless really cared for f.a.n.n.y? His attentions--oh! there was nothing in that--Lawless was shy and awkward in female society, and f.a.n.n.y had been kind to him, and had taken the trouble to draw him out, therefore he liked her, and preferred talking and laughing with her, rather than with any other girl with whom he did not feel at his ease. However, even if there should be anything more in it, it had not gone so far but that a little judicious snubbing would easily put an end to it--I determined, therefore, to talk to my mother about it after breakfast: she had now seen enough of Lawless to form her own opinion of him; and if she agreed with Oaklands and Mr. Frampton that his was not a style of character calculated to secure f.a.n.n.y's happiness, we must let her go and stay with the Colemans, or find some other means of separating them. I had just arrived at this conclusion, when, on pa.s.sing round the stem of an old tree which stood in the path, I encountered -354-- some person who was advancing rapidly in an opposite direction, meeting him so abruptly that we ran against each other with no small degree of violence.
”Hold hard there I you're on your wrong side, young fellow, and if you've done me the slightest damage, even scratched my varnish, I'll pull you up.”
”I wish you had pulled up a little quicker yourself, Lawless,” replied I, for, as the reader has doubtless discovered from the style of his address, it was none other than the subject of my late reverie with whom I had come in collision. ”I don't know whether I have scratched your varnish, as you call it, but I have knocked the skin off my own knuckles against the tree in the scrimmage.”
”Never mind, man,” returned Lawless, ”there are worse misfortunes happen at sea; a little sticking-plaster will set all to rights again. But look here, Fairlegh,” he continued, taking my arm, ”I'm glad I happened to meet you; I want to have five minutes' serious conversation with you.”
”Won't it do after breakfast?” interposed I, for my fears construed this appeal into ”confirmation strong as holy writ” of my previous suspicions, and I wished to be fortified by my mother's opinion before I in any degree committed myself. All my precautions were, however, in vain.
”Eh! I won't keep you five minutes, but you see this sort of thing will never do at any price; I'm all wrong altogether--sometimes I feel as if fire and water would not stop me, or cart-ropes hold me--then again I grow as nervous as an old cat with the palsy, and sit moping in a corner like an owl in fits. Last hunting-day I was just as if I was mad--pressed upon the pack when they were getting away--rode over two or three of the tail hounds, laid 'em sprawling on their backs, like spread eagles, till the huntsman swore at me loud enough to split a three-inch oak plank--went slap at everything that came in my way--took rails, fences, and timber, all flying, rough and smooth as nature made 'em--in short, showed the whole field the way across country at a pace which rather astonished them, I fancy;--well, at last there was a check, and before the hounds got on the scent again, something seemed to come over me, so that I could not ride a bit, and kept cranning at mole-hills and s.h.i.+rking gutters, till I wound up by getting a tremendous purl from checking my horse at a wretched little fence that he could have stepped over, and actually I felt so fainthearted that I gave it up as a bad job, and rode home -355-- ready to eat my hat with vexation. But I know what it is, I'm in love--that confounded Charade put me up to that dodge. I fancied at first that I had got an ague, one of those off-and-on affairs that always come just when you don't want them, and was going to ask Ellis to give me a ball, but I found it out just in time, and precious glad I was too, for I never could bear taking physic since I was the height of sixpenny worth of halfpence.”
”Really, Lawless, I must be getting home.”
”Eh! wait a minute; you haven't an idea what a desperate state I'm in; I had a letter returned to me yesterday, with a line from the post-office clerk, saying no such person could be found, and when I came to look at the address I wasn't surprised to hear it. I had written to give some orders about a dog-cart that is building for me, and directed my letter to 'Messrs. Lovely f.a.n.n.y, Coachmakers, Long Acre'. Things can't go on in this way, you know--I must do something--come to the point, eh?--What do you say?”
”Upon my word,” replied I, ”this is a case in which I am the last person to advise you.”
”Eh I no, it is not that--I'm far beyond the reach of advice, but what I mean is, your governor being dead--don't you see--I consider you to stand _in propria quae maribus_, as we used to say at old Mildman's.”
”_In loco parentis_ is what you are aiming at, I imagine,” returned I.
”Eh! Psha, it's all the same!” continued Lawless impatiently; ”but what do you say about it? Will you give your consent, and back me up a bit in the business?--for I'm precious nervous, I can tell you.”
”Am I to understand, then,” said I, seeing an explanation was inevitable, ”that it is my sister who has inspired you with this very alarming attachment?”
”Eh! yes, of course it is,” was the reply; ”haven't I been talking about her for the last ten minutes? You are growing stupid all at once; did you think it was your mother I meant?”
”Not exactly,” replied I, smiling; ”but have you ever considered what Lord Cas.h.i.+ngtown would say to your marrying a poor clergyman's daughter?”
”What! my governor? oh! he'd be so delighted to get me married at any price, that he would not care who it was to, so that she was a lady. He knows how I s.h.i.+rk female society in general, and he is afraid I shall break my neck some of these fine days, and leave him the -356-- honour of being the last Lord Cas.h.i.+ngtown as well as the first.”
”And may I ask whether you imagine your suit likely to be favourably received by the young lady herself?”
”Eh! why, you see it's not so easy to tell; I'm not used to the ways of women, exactly. Now with horses I know every action, and can guess what they'd be up to in a minute;