For a moment Fanny felt stunned; she stared at her suitor with stupefied incredulity, then burst into tears.
This sudden opening of the gates of the world and life, so far transcended her humble hopes. In spite of her cousins' crude and brutal chaff, Fanny had never thought of the Major's attentions as otherwise than the good-nature of an idle man, who noticed that she was forlorn, and a little out of it—the word "neglected" never occurred to her simple heart.
Tears such as Miss Bond's are quickly dried—on this occasion they were dealt with by the Major's own delicate silk handkerchief. For some time, she and her companion remained talking very earnestly to one another under the pergola, but what they said was known only to eavesdropping "Dorothy Perkins" and her pretty sisters.
Within half an hour, an engaged couple—each decorated with a pink rose—turned their happy faces towards the hotel. As they approached with lagging steps, they were "spotted" by Mrs. Joe, who happened to be extended in a verandah chair, smoking the inevitable cigarette, and mentally selecting her autumn toilette. In a second, she had realised the situation, and springing to her feet, upsetting an ink-bottle and ash-tray, she clapped her hands in noisy acclamation.
It was arranged that the wedding was to take place within a month—since there was really nothing to wait for, and the bridegroom wished the bride to see something of her own country, before sailing for India.
Bond himself was a good fellow, but his wife, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law—no. To Major Tallboys it was unbearable that he should be called "Freddy," in season and out of season, and publicly chaffed and kissed, by the overwhelming Mrs. Joe. The trousseau was selected in Liverpool—that city of fine shops—and Major Tallboys gave his fiancée a diamond ring, an unpretentious pendant, and much valuable advice. The honeymoon was spent in London, with excursions to Devon, Oxford, and Warwickshire; the newly married pair also made a round of the theatres, picture galleries, and museums. Great indeed are the marvels that dress, and a good conceit of oneself, can achieve. Joe Bond, meeting his cousin in a shop, actually failed to recognise in this elegant lady, with rustling skirts, a black-feathered hat, white gloves, and beautifully dressed hair, the dowdy and deprecating Fan!
Shortly before they sailed, the happy couple received intelligence calculated to still further increase their bliss.
The affairs of the late James Bond, merchant and shipmaster, had been wound up, and proved that he had been a miser, and, like his kind, had died a wealthy man. "Frances Ann," his only child, was heiress to something over five thousand a year.
Mrs. Tallboys' relatives received these tidings with unaffected consternation, and annoyance. Here was Fanny, a rich woman, married to a stuck-up little dandy who was carrying her and her fine fortune out of the country. The capital of this fortune would have made a noble bulwark to the house of "Bond, Tubbs, and Co." cotton brokers, and enabled them to extend their business into hitherto undreamt of regions. Had the Major any inkling of this hidden treasure when he proposed to Fan? The base suspicion was unfounded—nevertheless it rankled. Freddy Tallboys was equally thunderstruck by this amazing windfall; as for his wife—recalling long years of grey poverty—she could not realise her tens of thousands, and felt as if the whole world had been turned upside down! However, her clever and practical husband promptly grasped the change in their circumstances, interviewed lawyers, bankers, stockbrokers, purchased for Fan a string of pearls, a superb landau, and a supply of plate and china,—suitable for entertaining on a generous scale.
Arriving from furlough with a bride whose fortune had been magnified to millions, his many friends welcomed and applauded clever Freddy. He had waited to some purpose! At one time it had been feared that he was about to be snapped up by a girl from Bellary, a hard-riding, red-haired spin, without a pice!