第31章

While Lord Colambre was walking up and down the room, much vexed and disappointed at finding that he could make no impression on his father's mind, nor obtain his confidence as to his family affairs, Lady Clonbrony's woman, Mrs.Petito, knocked at the door, with a message from her lady, to beg, if Lord Colambre was BY HIMSELF; he would go to her dressing-room, as she wished to have a conference with him.He obeyed her summons.

'Sit down, my dear Colambre--' And she began precisely with her old sentence--'With the fortune I brought your father, and with my lord's estate, I CAWNT understand the meaning of all these pecuniary difficulties; and all that strange creature Sir Terence says is algebra to me, who speak English.And I am particularly sorry he was let in this morning--but he's such a brute that he does not think anything of forcing one's door, and he tells my footman he does not mind NOT AT HOME a pinch of snuff.Now what can you do with a man who could say that sort of thing, you know--the world's at an end.'

'I wish my father had nothing to do with him, ma'am, as much as you can wish it,' said Lord Colambre; 'but I have said all that a son can with propriety say, and without effect.'

'What particularly provokes me against him,' continued Lady Clonbrony, 'is what I have just heard from Grace, who was really hurt by it, too, for she is the warmest friend in the world: Iallude to the creature's indelicate way of touching upon a tender PINT, and mentioning an amiable young heiress's name.My dear Colambre, I trust you have given me credit for my inviolable silence all this time upon the PINT nearest my heart.I am rejoiced to hear you was so warm when she was mentioned inadvertently by that brute, and I trust you now see the advantages of the projected union in as strong and agreeable a PINT of view as I do, my own Colambre; and I should leave things to themselves, and let you prolong the DEES of courtship as you please, only for what I now hear incidentally from my lord and the brute, about pecuniary embarrassments, and the necessity of something being done before next winter.And indeed I think now, in propriety, the proposal cannot be delayed much longer; for the world begins to talk of the thing as done; and even Mrs.

Broadhurst, I know, had no doubt that, if this CONTRETEMPS about the poor Berryls had not occurred, your proposal would have been made before the end of last week.'

Our hero was not a man to make a proposal because Mrs.Broadhurst expected it, or to marry because the world said he was going to be married.He steadily said that, from the first moment the subject had been mentioned, he had explained himself distinctly;that the young lady's friends could not, therefore, be under any doubt as to his intentions; that, if they had voluntarily deceived themselves, or exposed the lady in situations from which the world was led to make false conclusions, he was not answerable: he felt his conscience at ease--entirely so, as he was convinced that the young lady herself, for whose merit, talents, independence, and generosity of character he professed high respect, esteem, and admiration, had no doubts either of the extent or the nature of his regard.

'Regard, respect, esteem, admiration!--Why, my dearest Colambre!

this is saying all I want; satisfies me, and I am sure would satisfy Mrs Broadhurst and Miss Broadhurst too.'

'No doubt it will, ma'am; but not if I aspired to the honour of Miss Broadhurst's hand, or professed myself her lover.'

'My dear, you are mistaken; Miss Broadhurst is too sensible a girl, a vast deal, to look for love, and a dying lover, and all that sort of stuff; I am persuaded--indeed I have it from good, from the best authority--that the young lady--you know one must be delicate in these cases, where a young lady of such fortune, and no despicable family too is concerned; therefore I cannot speak quite plainly--but I say I have it from the best authority, that you would be preferred to any other suitor, and, in short, that--'

'I beg your pardon, madam, for interrupting you,' cried Lord Colambre, colouring a good deal; 'but you must excuse me if Isay, that the only authority on which I could believe this is one from which I am morally certain I shall never hear it from Miss Broadhurst herself.'

'Lord, child! if you would only ask her the question, she would tell you it is truth, I daresay.'

'But as I have no curiosity on the subject, ma'am--'

'Lord bless me! I thought everybody had curiosity.But still, without curiosity, I am sure it would gratify you when you did hear it; and can't you just put the simple question?'

'Impossible!'

'Impossible!--now that is so very provoking when the thing is all but done.Well, take your own time; all I will ask of you then is, to let things go on as they are going--smoothly and pleasantly; and I'll not press you farther on the subject at present, Let things go on smoothly, that's all I ask, and say nothing.'

'I wish I could oblige you, mother; but I cannot do this.Since you tell me that the world and Miss Broadhurst's friends have already misunderstood my intentions, it becomes necessary, in justice to the young lady and to myself, that I should make all further doubt impossible.I shall, therefore, put an end to it at once, by leaving town to-morrow.'

Lady Clonbrony, breathless for a moment with surprise, exclaimed, 'Bless me! leave town to-morrow! Just at the beginning of the season! Impossible!--I never saw such a precipitate, rash young man.But stay only a few weeks, Colambre; the physicians advise Buxton for my rheumatism, and you shall take us to Buxton early in the season--you cannot refuse me that.Why, if Miss Broadhurst was a dragon, you could not be in a greater hurry to run away from her.What are you afraid of?'

'Of doing what is wrong--the only thing, I trust, of which Ishall ever be afraid.'