He would have given a good deal for power to blot out those short utterances to his wife. Harvey could not resist a consciousness that Julia's conscience might prove less malleable than his own—not that his own was quite so submissive as he could have wished. But Julia— why, Julia was a woman, more than that, a mere girl. Women never would hear reason, if they took up a certain notion on any subject. It was always with them a matter of feeling, not of logic. And as for Julia, she knew about as much of business and money affairs as little Mittie.
It was a marvel to Harvey how he could have done so unadvised a thing as to speak out to Julia at all. Dear good creature she was, and the best of wives, but Harvey feared she might give him no end of trouble here. The decision of course rested with him, and he was not afraid that she would let out anything to anybody else; still he did not wish to lower himself in her eyes. He would have to discuss the whole question with her; more than this, he would undoubtedly have to settle some amount on Hermione without further delay, as the best hope of pacifying Julia.
Then the old bother would have to be met and answered. How much was the least that would do? How little was the most he must part with?
If only he had kept his own counsel, and said nothing! After all, he and Julia had both come through the peril with only passing hurts. From his present position of safety he could hardly remise how dire the peril had been. It mystified him that for a short space he should have viewed things so differently. For past scenes soon lose their vividness; and earthly life seemed now so full of reality, so likely to go on for another half-century or thereabouts, that Harvey was little disposed to look further ahead. He wanted to get along comfortably in this present life; and to give up twenty thousand pounds, or even half of twenty thousand pounds, would not be comfortable.
"We should have to consider every sixpence before spending it. And as for keeping hunters! But there could not be a more extravagant idea! Absurd! The estate simply could not stand it. I shall have to explain all this to Julia."
Explaining means trouble, however, and Harvey hated trouble. So, much as he really wished to see Julia again, he was on the whole languidly disposed to plead weakness, and to defer the first interview.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
WHAT TO THINK OF IT.
MRS. TREVOR was still at the cottage, joint-nurse with Mrs. Ogilvie to the two invalids. It was the natural thing that she should be there, helping to care for her own sister. But Mrs. Trevor soon grew heartily weary of that lonely dwelling. To a genuine lover of chimney-pots, absolute country is a bore.
She made no secret of the fact with her brother-in-law. Mrs. Trevor could not forgive Harvey for the accident which had deprived her of East Bourne delights, and had condemned her to this dismal solitude. So far as practical nursing was concerned she did her duty, no doubt, but Harvey had reached a stage which called rather for amusement than for nursing, and here Mrs. Trevor failed. She was much too dull herself to amuse any one else. Besides, the whole catastrophe was Harvey's own fault. If he had not chosen to keep such horses, the accident need never have happened. Mrs. Trevor took care to let Harvey know what she thought.