The Graftons: A Novel

by Archibald Marshall

"She found out after all that she wanted somebody younger," said Caroline.

"Yes, that's what you'd think. The truth of it is you've both been scratching each other's backs. 'Of course he'd want what Dick wanted in you, darling,' and 'Of course she'd want somebody more like Maurice, dearie.' To any sensible woman George is worth Dick and Maurice put together. Well, I don't know what has happened. I think she would have had him a month ago, if he'd asked her. I've hardly seen her since. At any rate, it's all over. George won't marry now. This was the only chance. He wouldn't marry for the sake of marrying, and he wouldn't go about looking for somebody to fall in love with. You've stopped his doing either, till it's too late. But with somebody provided for him, so to speak, who would just suit him, and could make him fall in love with her into the bargain—it would have been simply ideal. Now the poor man has got to fly off and forget all about it. Of course he won't forget all about it for a long time. He'll feel himself old all of a sudden, and know that he'll have to go on getting older for the rest of his life. I'm furious about it."

Caroline and Beatrix went on to see Lady Handsworth. They agreed on the way there that Aunt Mary was really rather sweet about their father, though she always tried to be too clever. It was hard lines on the poor old darling, and they would have to do their best to prevent him feeling he was getting old. It seemed that he actually had run away. Uncle James had said that somebody from the Bank was to have been sent to Spain in a day or two, but that he had suddenly announced his intention of going himself, immediately. He had said nothing about the engagement, but he must have known of it when he made his decision, as he had written to Beatrix that afternoon.

Lady Handsworth was concerned about the news. "I did hope that she would have married your father," she said. "But I never felt quite so sure about it as Mary, and others, have. I think she could never quite make up her mind. Sir John Ambleside has been rather determined in his wooing, and I suppose it came to a point where George held back, not liking to put himself into rivalry with a much younger man."

"I think that's much the most likely thing to have happened," said Caroline. "But he did love her, I'm pretty sure, and I'm most awfully sorry for him."

"So am I," said Lady Handsworth. "But he will get over it, perhaps sooner than one might think. A man of his age never lets himself quite go, unless he's absolutely sure. He knows, for one thing, that life isn't all made up of love, and if he has had a blow he can look forward to the time when he will have left off feeling it. Besides, your father hasn't lost the love that he has always had, and that has been enough for him hitherto."

This was more consoling than Lady Grafton's statement that it was all their fault. Of course he hadn't lost their love; it was stronger than ever, because he would depend upon them more than if Ella had gone to him to fill their place.

"I'm afraid I was rather selfish when I found out how much I loved Dick," Beatrix said, when they had left Lady Handsworth. "Dick says I was, himself, and that if I had made a little more fuss with Daddy he wouldn't have wanted to go off loving somebody else. I loved him just the same, but I suppose I didn't think enough that he'd want me to show it. Still, you haven't been like that. You're more thoughtful than I am, dearest. I don't think it would have made much difference. I think Aunt Mary was right there. It was Ella making up to him that led him on—even if she didn't mean to lead him on so far."

"I shall write to her," said Caroline. "He asks us to. He won't want us not to be friends; and I suppose she will still be living at Surley sometimes."

Both of them wrote. Ella's answers were affectionate, but it seemed to them a little shame-faced. She said very little to them about the man she was going to marry, though it would have been natural for her to expatiate upon him to such intimate friends. Her only reference to Grafton was in her letter to Caroline, in which she said: "I told dear Mr. Grafton before anybody, and he was so sweet about it, and has promised me a very handsome wedding present."