Part 3 (1/2)

”And is she willing to marry you?” inquired Mary.

His lords.h.i.+p shrugged his shoulders.

”Oh, well, you know, her people want it,” he replied.

In spite of her trouble, the girl could not help a laugh. These young swells seemed to have but small wills of their own. Her ladys.h.i.+p, on the other side of the door, grew nervous. It was the only sound she had been able to hear.

”It's deuced awkward,” explained his lords.h.i.+p, ”when you're--well, when you are anybody, you know. You can't do as you like. Things are expected of you, and there's such a lot to be considered.”

Mary rose and clasped her pretty dimpled hands, from which she had drawn her gloves, behind his neck.

”You do love me, Jack?” she said, looking up into his face.

For answer the lad hugged her to him very tightly, and there were tears in his eyes.

”Look here, Mary,” he cried, ”if I could only get rid of my position, and settle down with you as a country gentleman, I'd do it to-morrow. d.a.m.n the t.i.tle, it's going to be the curse of my life.”

Perhaps in that moment Mary also wished that the t.i.tle were at the bottom of the sea, and that her lover were only the plain Mr. John Robinson she had thought him. These big, stupid men are often very loveable in spite of, or because of their weakness. They appeal to the mother side of a woman's heart, and that is the biggest side in all good women.

Suddenly however, the door opened. The countess appeared, and sentiment flew out. Lord C---, releasing Mary, sprang back, looking like a guilty school-boy.

”I thought I heard Miss Sewell go out,” said her ladys.h.i.+p in the icy tones that had never lost their power of making her son's heart freeze within him. ”I want to see you when you are free.”

”I shan't be long,” stammered his lords.h.i.+p. ”Mary--Miss Sewell is just going.”

Mary waited without moving until the countess had left and closed the door behind her. Then she turned to her lover and spoke in quick, low tones.

”Give me her address--the girl they want you to marry!”

”What are you going to do?” asked his lords.h.i.+p.

”I don't know,” answered the girl, ”but I'm going to see her.”

She scribbled the name down, and then said, looking the boy squarely in the face:

”Tell me frankly, Jack, do you want to marry me, or do you not?”

”You know I do, Mary,” he answered, and his eyes spoke stronger than his words. ”If I weren't a silly a.s.s, there would be none of this trouble.

But I don't know how it is; I say to myself I'll do, a thing, but the mater talks and talks and--”

”I know,” interrupted Mary with a smile. ”Don't argue with her, fall in with all her views, and pretend to agree with her.”

”If you could only think of some plan,” said his lords.h.i.+p, catching at the hope of her words, ”you are so clever.”

”I am going to try,” answered Mary, ”and if I fail, you must run off with me, even if you have to do it right before your mother's eyes.”

What she meant was, ”I shall have to run off with you,” but she thought it better to put it the other way about.

Mary found her involuntary rival a meek, gentle little lady, as much under the influence of her bl.u.s.tering father as was Lord C--- under that of his mother. What took place at the interview one can only surmise; but certain it is that the two girls, each for her own ends, undertook to aid and abet one another.

Much to the surprised delight of their respective parents, there came about a change in the att.i.tude hitherto a.s.sumed towards one another by Miss Clementina Hodskiss and Lord C---. All objections to his lords.h.i.+p's unwilling attentions were suddenly withdrawn by the lady. Indeed, so swift to come and go are the whims of women, his calls were actually encouraged, especially when, as generally happened, they coincided with the absence from home of Mr. and Mrs. Hodskiss. Quite as remarkable was the new-born desire of Lord C--- towards Miss Clementina Hodskiss. Mary's name was never mentioned, and the suggestion of immediate marriage was listened to without remonstrance. Wiser folk would have puzzled their brains, but both her ladys.h.i.+p and ex-Contractor Hodskiss were accustomed to find all things yield to their wishes. The countess saw visions of a rehabilitated estate, and Clementina's father dreamed of a peerage, secured by the influence of aristocratic connections. All that the young folks stipulated for (and on that point their firmness was supernatural) was that the marriage should be quiet, almost to the verge of secrecy.