"I think you're right, Jim," said Pringle, quietly. "You've had your fling, and you seem to have a chance of settling well in life just now. Tell the old father all about yourself--your income and your chances, I mean,--and don't give him the opportunity of flinging any thing in your teeth hereafter. Well, whoever paid that amount of stuff for you did you a good turn, and no mistake. I wonder who it could be. No use asking Scadgers, he'd be as close as death about it; indeed, if there were any hanky-panky, any mystery, I mean, he'd always swear he was out whenever one called, for fear it should be bullied out of him."
Indeed, Mr. Pringle, not being of a very impulsive temperament, and not having very much to think about, bestowed far more wonderment on the question as to who could have been Mr. Prescott's anonymous benefactor than did Mr. Prescott himself. That gentleman, in love over head and ears, simply thought of the transaction as a means to an end; in any other position he would have bestowed upon it a certain amount of astonishment, but now all he cared for was to avail himself of the chance it had opened up to him. He had determined that, so soon as he found himself unfettered by debt, he would inform Mr. Murray of his attachment to his daughter, and ask the old gentleman's consent to their getting married. He knew well enough that his own official salary was by no means sufficient to maintain a wife--notably a wife, the daughter of a rich country squire--in the manner to which she had been accustom; but he knew equally well that the rich country squire would, in all probability, make a handsome settlement on his daughter; and to this he thoroughly looked forward. Not that there should be urged against him the least suspicion of an arrière pensée; he loved the girl with all his heart and soul and strength; but as in these days he would never have thought of riding forth into Fleet Street and proclaiming her beauty and virtue, and challenging all who might feel inclined to gainsay them to single combat,--in like manner, in these days would he never have thought of marrying a woman without money. And this was the youth who would have taken Kate Mellon in her unrecognised position, and, so far as he knew, penniless! Yes, but Kate Mellon was his first love; those were his earliest salad days; he has had much experience of the world since then, and is not honester or fresher from the contest.
There was, however, no doubt about his love for Miss Murray and his desire to see her, so he started off by the first train after business-hours on the next day, and was whirled off to Havering Station. One may suppose that he had found time to communicate the fact of his intended arrival; for he had scarcely proceeded a few paces up the steep hill which leads from the railway to the village before he saw coming spinning towards him a low basket-chaise drawn by a pair of roan galloways in plain black harness. And seated in the basket, driving the roans, was a young lady in the prettiest little round hat, and with the nicest short sealskin jacket and the daintiest dogskin driving-gauntlets, who gave the knowingest salute with her whip when she saw Prescott, while the groom behind her jumped down and relieved the young gentleman of his portmanteau.
"Punctual, sir, I think!" was the young lady's salutation after she had rescued the right-hand dogskin gauntlet from a prolonged pressure--"punctual, I think! I say, James, what on earth has brought you down again so quickly? You didn't give a hint in your note."
"You, of course," said Mr. Prescott, looking at her with the greatest delight.
"No, but really! Papa, when he read your note, said he was delighted to have you again, and that he supposed you must have obtained some farther leave of absence. But I knew that was not likely, and I felt certain you were coming on some special business. Oh, James, there's no bad news, is there?"
"No, my darling pet, no bad news,--good, splendid, excellent news! I'd tell you what it is now, but I can't, because it's news that's impossible to be told except with action; and if I were to take action, I should astonish the worthy person who is sitting behind us, and who is taking such care of my portmanteau."
"Oh, James, how can you! You'll drive, of course. I can't fancy any thing more horrible than seeing a gentleman driven by a lady. Now, Bagshaw, all right. And so you won't tell me, James?"
"Not yet, Emily, not yet; and yet I don't see why on earth I shouldn't. Bagshaw seems to be paying the greatest attention to the landscape, and, moreover, has established a wall of portmanteau between us and him of the most satisfactory. So I don't mind telling you, that I have come down to propose for you to your father, and to ask his consent to our marriage."
"Oh, James, I never did! And ask papa's consent, indeed! Do you know that you've never asked mine, sir?"