"Not real plate!"
Toney nodded.
"Yes, just real silver, and everything like lords and ladies, won't they be pleased? Something to remember!"
"I hope it won't disappear, Toney!"
"How can you suggest anything so unkind! You see the children have the other barn, and Mrs. Faber undertakes them. A child is always good with her. Isn't it odd? Do you see that Mr. Faber is hard at work there now with her? I shall want to cut myself in three pieces! Oh, I am so happy!"
Lewis glancing at her face did not doubt her happiness, but he could not echo the speech. Before Toney had become an heiress, Lewis had fallen in love with her, he had made her promise to give him something when he should ask for it, and then suddenly this terrible fortune had dropped down from the skies, and had set up a wall of division between him and the girl he admired as well as loved. No girl in his estimation could approach Toney in all the qualities he so much respected; he knew she was not a highly accomplished English young lady, she did not move with rhythmic beauty, she did not sing like a syren or play like Chopin, but she was just Toney, with splendid health and beauty of her own, and with a character which influenced nearly everyone that came in contact with her. Lewis knew that it was owing to her that his cottages were now in perfect repair, and that he now deserved better the name of a good landlord than he had done before. It was Toney's influence, Toney's example of doing her best for her neighbours with all her heart, that had awakened his conscience, and yet the Waycotts were very proud of their good name. He could not bear that it should be said he had married the heiress for money—and he knew Lady Dove would say it. Would the world believe that he had loved the wild colt who had first visited him with the poor companion? Toney had said herself people would want to marry her money, how should he be able to prove the contrary? Why had the old General ever taken a fancy to her?
He had not, however, to-day much time for thought, he could not even flatter himself that Toney connected him in the least with that kind of love, she was certainly heart-whole; would the awakening ever come, would blindfolded Cupid by chance let one of his arrows pierce her? Lewis could not answer this question. If only he might woo her, he thought that perhaps he could awaken the sleeping boy, but there lay the difficulty; he could not, he dared not face the bare idea of Toney's thinking and of saying—for she seldom hid her thoughts—
"Oh, it's only my money you care about!" He must wait, and in the meantime what if someone bolder or less scrupulous won her!
As Lewis hurried to the hall to pick up some possessions before going home to lunch, he came face to face with Lady Dove.
"I've been helping to decorate," he said, to account for his presence.