At that moment Mr Boncassen entered the room, and
was immediately appealed to his by his daughter.
’Father, you must turn Lord Silverbridge out
of the room.’
‘Dear me! If I must,—of course
I must. But why?’
‘He is saying everything horrid he can about
Americans.’
After this they settled down for a few minutes to
general conversation, and then Lord Silverbridge again
took his leave. When he was gone Isabel Boncassen
almost regretted that the ‘something particular’
which he had threatened to say had not been less comic
in its nature.
When the reader was told that Lord Popplecourt had
found Lady Cantrip very agreeable it is to be hoped
that the reader was disgusted. Lord Popplecourt
would certainly not have given a second thought to
Lady Cantrip unless he had been specifically flattered.
And why should such a man have been flattered by a
woman who was in all respects his superior? The
reader will understand. It had been settled by
the wisdom of the elders that it would be a good thing
that Lord Popplecourt should marry Lady Mary Palliser.
The mutual assent which leads to marriage should no
doubt be spontaneous. Who does not feel that?
Young love should speak from its first doubtful unconscious
spark,—a spark which any breath of air
may quench or cherish,—till it becomes a
flame which nothing can satisfy but the union of two
lovers. No one should be told to love, or bidden
to marry this man or that woman. The theory of
this is plain to us all, and till we have sons or daughters
whom we feel imperatively obliged to control, the
theory is unassailable. But the duty is so imperative!
The Duke taught himself to believe that as his wife
would have been thrown away on the world had she been
allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald, so would his daughter
be thrown away were she allowed to marry Mr Tregear.
Therefore the theory of spontaneous love must in this
case be set aside. Therefore the spark,—would
that it had been no more,—must be quenched.
Therefore there could be no union of two lovers;—but
simply a prudent and perhaps a splendid marriage.
Lord Popplecourt was a man in possession of a large
estate which was unencumbered. His rank in the
peerage was not high, but his barony was of an old
date,—and, if things went well with him,
something higher in rank might be open to him.
He had good looks of that sort which recommend themselves
to pastors and masters, to elders and betters.
He had regular features. He looked as though
he were steady. He was not impatient or rollicking.
Silverbridge was also good-looking;—but
his good looks were such as would give a pang to the
hearts of anxious mothers of daughters. Tregear
was the handsomest man of the three;—but
then he looked as though he had not betters and did
not care for his elders. Lord Popplecourt, though
a very young man, had once stammered through half-a-dozen
words in the House of Lords, and had been known to
dine with the ‘Benevolent Funds’.
Lord Silverbridge had declared him to be a fool.
No one thought him to be bright. But in the eyes
of the Duke,—and of Lady Cantrip,—he
had his good qualities.
