"Odd! why, God bless my soul! Annie, you don't think that I shouldn't; but, you see, it was all so--At all events, I'm certain I told Lord Caterham to tell you."
Geoff was in a fix here. His best chance of repudiating the idea that he had willfully neglected informing Annie of his intended marriage was the true reason, that the marriage itself was, up to within the shortest time of its fulfilment, so unlooked for; but this would throw a kind of slur on his wife; at all events, would prompt inquiries; so he got through it as best he could with the stuttering excuses above recorded.
They seemed to avail with Annie Maurice; for she only said, "O, yes; I daresay it was some bungle of yours. You always used to make the most horrible mistakes, Geoff, I've heard poor papa say a thousand times, and get out of it in the lamest manner." Then, after a moment, she said, "You must introduce me to your wife, Geoffrey;" and, almost against her inclination, added, "What is she like?"
"Introduce you, little child? Why, of course I will, and tell her how long I have known you, and how you used to sit on my knee, and be my little pet," said old Geoff, in a transport of delight. "O, I think you'll like her, Annie. She is--yes, I may say so--she is very beautiful, and--and very quiet and good."
Geoff's ignorance of the world is painfully manifested in this speech. No Woman could possibly be pleased to hear of her husband having been in the habit Of having any little pet on his knee; and in advancing her being "very beautiful" as a reason for liking his wife, Geoff showed innocence which was absolutely refreshing.
Very beautiful! Was that mere conjugal blindness or real fact? Taken in conjunction with "very quiet and good," it looked like the former; but then where beauty was concerned Geoff had always been a stern judge; and it was scarcely likely that he would suffer his judgment, founded on the strictest abstract principles to be warped by any whim or fancy. Very beautiful!--the quietude and goodness came into account,--very beautiful!
"O, yes; I must come and see Mrs. Ludlow, please. You will name a day before you go?"
"Name a day! What for, Annie?"
Lord Caterham was the speaker, sitting in his chair, and being wheeled in from his bedroom by Stephens. Ins tone was a little harsh; his temper a little sharp. He had all along determined that Annie and Geoff should not be left alone together on the occasion of her first lesson. But l'homme propose et Dieu dispose; and Caterham had been unable to raise his head from his pillow, with one of those fearful neuralgic headaches which occasionally affected him.
"What for! Why, to be introduced to Mrs. Ludlow! By the way, you seem to have left your eyes in the other room, Arthur. You have not seen Mr. Ludlow before, have you?"