She sighed heavily; there was more than one care on her heart, and that sigh gathered in a whole group of anxieties.
“They have got up all sorts of stories about us; and it is always out of these false attacks of scandal comes the real assault that storms the citadel.”
She sighed again, but did not speak.
“So long as Heathcote keeps the house and sees nobody, all may go on well; but let him be about again, able to ramble amongst the galleries and churches, he is certain to meet some amiable acquaintance, who will startle him with a few home truths. I tell you again, we are banqueting over a powder-magazine; and even as to the marriage itself, I don't like it. Are you aware of the amount he is able to settle? I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the draft. It is neither more nor less than eight thousand pounds. Fancy taking such a husband for eight thousand pounds!”
“You scarcely put the case fairly, papa,” said she, smiling; “the eight thousand is the compensation for losing him.”
“Are you in love with him, then?” asked he, with a sarcastic twinkle of the eye.
“I don't think so,—at least, not to desperation.”
“It is scarcely for the sake of being 'My Lady.'”
“Oh dear, no; that is a snobbery quite beyond me. Now, I neither marry for the title, nor the man, nor his money, nor his station; but out of that mass of motives which to certain women have the force of a principle. I can explain what I mean, perhaps, by an illustration: Were you to tell a fashionable physician, in first-rate practice, that if he got up out of bed at midnight, and drove off two miles to a certain corner of Regent's Park, where under a particular stone he 'd find a guinea, it is more than certain he 'd not stir; but if you sent for the same man to a case of illness, he'd go unhesitatingly, and accept his guinea as the due recompense of his trouble. This is duty, or professional instinct, or something else with a fine name, but it's not gold-seeking. There now, make out my meaning out of my parable, as best you may. And, after all, papa, I'm not quite sure that I intend to marry him.”
“Why, what do you mean?”