Part 74 (1/2)
”You know, I'm not good at guessing, Lora. I hope you havn't lost your favourite merlin?”
”No--not so bad as that; though I've lost something.”
”What, pray?”
”A lover!”
”Ah!” exclaimed Marion with a sad emphasis. Then, making an effort to conceal her emotion, she added in another strain, ”I hope Walter hasn't been flirting with Dorothy Dayrell?”
”Bother Dorothy Dayrell!”
”Well--perhaps with one you might have more reason to be afraid of--Miss Winifred Wayland?”
”Not so bad as that neither. It's another lover I've lost!”
”Oh! you confess to having had another. Have you told Walter so?”
”Bother about Walter! Who do you think I'm speaking of?”
”Captain Scarthe perhaps--whom you admire so much. Is he the lover you have lost?”
”Not so bad as that neither. Guess again?”
”A third there is, or has been! You wicked coquette?”
”Not I. I never gave him the slightest encouragement. I am sure, never. Did you ever see me, coz?”
”When you tell me who this lost lover is, I shall be the better able to answer you.”
”Who he is! Cornet Stubbs, of course.”
”Oh! he. And how have you come to lose him? Has he made away with himself? He hasn't drowned himself in the mere, I hope?”
”I don't know. I shouldn't like to swear he hasn't. When I last looked upon his ugly face, I fancied there was drowning in it. Ha! ha! ha!”
”Well, my light-hearted coz; your loss seems to sit easily upon you.
Pray explain yourself.”
”Marion!” said Lora, catching hold of her cousin's arm; and speaking in a tone of greater solemnity. ”Would you believe it--that impertinent has again proposed to me?”
”What! a second declaration! That looks more like finding a lover, than losing one?”
”Ay, a second declaration; and this time far more determined than before. Why, he would take no denial!”
”And what answer did you make him?”
”Well, the first time, as I told you, I gave him a flat refusal. This time it wasn't so very flat. It was both pointed and indignant. I talked to him sharp enough: no mincing of words I a.s.sure you. And yet, for all that, the _pig_ persisted in his proposal, as if he had the power to force me to say, yes! I couldn't get rid of him, until I threatened him with a box on the ear. Ay, and I'd have given it him, if some of the company hadn't come up at the time, and relieved me of his importunities. I shouldn't have cared if I had ever given him cause-- the impudent pleb! I wonder that keeping the company of his more accomplished captain don't have the effect of refining him a little--the impertinent upstart!”
”Have you told Walter?”
”No--that I haven't; and don't you, dear Marion. You know Walter has been jealous of Stubbs--without the slightest cause--and might want to challenge him. I shouldn't that, for the world; though I'd like some one--not Walter--to teach him a lesson, such as your brave Henry Holtspur taught--