Part 73 (1/2)
”I agree, madam.”
”So do I. There, Lucy, choose, for we both release you.”
”Thank you,” said Lucy gravely; ”but how can you? No unfair advantage was taken of me; I plighted my word knowingly and solemnly, and no human power can release persons of honor from a solemn pledge.
Besides, just now you would release me; but you might not always be in the same mind. No, I will keep faith with you both, and not place my truth at the mercy of any human being nor of any circ.u.mstance. If that is all, please permit me to retire. The less a young lady of my age thinks or talks about the other s.e.x, the more time she has for her books and her needle;” and, having delivered this precious sentence, with a deliberate and most deceiving imitation of the pedantic prude, she departed, and outside the door broke instantly into a joyous chuckle at the expense of the plotters she had left looking moonstruck in one another's faces. If the new allies had been both Fountain, the apple of discord this sweet novice threw down between them would have dissolved the alliance, as the sly novice meant it to do; but, while the gentleman went storming about the room ripe for civil war, the lady leaned back in her chair and laughed heartily.
”Come, Mr. Fountain, it is no use your being cross with a female, or she will get the better of you. She has outwitted us. We took her for a fool, and she is a clever girl. I'll--tell--you--what, she is a very clever girl. Never mind that, she is only a girl; and, if you will be ruled by me, her happiness shall be secured in spite of her, and she shall be engaged in less than a week.”
Fountain recognized his superior, and put himself under the lady's orders--in an evil hour for Lucy.
The poor girl's triumph over the forces was but momentary; her ground was not tenable. The person promised can release the person who promises--_volenti non fit injuria._ Lucy found herself attacked with female weapons, that you and I, sir, should laugh at; but they made her miserable. Cold looks; short answers; solemnity; distance; hints at ingrat.i.tude and perverseness; kisses intermitted all day, and the parting one at night degraded to a dignified ceremony. Under this impalpable persecution the young thoroughbred, that had steered the boat across the breakers, winced and pined.
She did not want a husband or a lover, but she could not live without being loved. She was not sent into the world for that. She began secretly to hate the two gentlemen that had lost her her relations'
affection, and she looked round to see how she could get rid of them without giving fresh offense to her dear aunt and uncle. If she could only make it their own act! Now a man in such a case inclines to give the obnoxious parties a chance of showing themselves generous and delicate; he would reveal the whole situation to them, and indicate the generous and manly course; but your thorough woman cannot do this.
It is physically as well as morally impossible to her. Misogynists say it is too wise, and not cunning enough. So what does Miss Lucy do but turn round and make love to Captain Kenealy? And the cold virgin being at last by irrevocable fate driven to love-making, I will say this for her, she did not do it by halves. She felt quite safe here. The good-natured, hollow captain was fortified against pa.s.sion by self-admiration. She said to herself: ”Now here is a peg with a military suit hanging to it; if I can only fix my eyes on this piece of wood and regimentals, and make warm love to it, the love that poets have dreamed and romances described, I may surely hope to disgust my two admirers, and then they will abandon me and despise me. Ah! I could love them if they would only do that.”
Well, for a young lady that had never, to her knowledge, felt the tender pa.s.sion, the imitation thereof which she now favored that little society with was a wonderful piece of representation. Was Kenealy absent, behold Lucy uneasy and restless; was he present; but at a distance, her eye demurely devoured him; was he near her, she wooed him with such a G.o.d-like mixture of fire, of tenderness, of flattery, of tact; she did so serpentinely approach and coil round the soldier and his mental cavity, that all the males in creation should have been permitted to defile past (like the beasts going into the ark), and view this sweet picture a moment, and infer how women would be wooed, and then go and do it. Effect:
Talboys and Hardie mortified to the heart's core; thought they had altogether mistaken her character. ”She is a love-sick fool.”
On Bazalgette: ”a.s.s! Dodd was worth a hundred of him.”
On Kenealy: made him twirl his mustache.
On Fountain: filled him with dismay. There remained only one to be hoodwinked.
SCENA.
A letter is brought in and handed to Captain Kenealy. He reads it, and looks a little--a very little--vexed. n.o.body else notices it.
Lucy. ”What is the matter? Oh, what has occurred?”
Kenealy. ”Nothing particulaa.”
Lucy. ”Don't deceive us: it is an order for you to join the horrid army.” (Clasps her hands.) ”You are going to leave us.”
Kenealy. ”No, it is from my tailaa. He waunts to be paed.”
(Glares astonished.)
Lucy. ”Pay the creature, and nevermore employ him.”
Kenealy. ”Can't. Haven't got the money. Uncle won't daie. The begaa knows I can't pay him, that is the reason why he duns.”
Lucy. ”He knows it? then what business has he to annoy you thus? Take my advice. Return no reply. That is not courteous. But when the sole motive of an application is impertinence, silent contempt is the course best befitting your dignity.”
Kenealy (twirling his mustache). ”Dem the fellaa. Shan't take any notice of him.”
Mrs. Bazalgette (to Lucy in pa.s.sing). ”Do you think we are all fools?”