“Ay, you need not tell me! this is your doing, Sophia! Poor Henry never had a particle of sense! A dear, good fellow, of course, but when a man has a quiverful of children he needs to be a little sharper than Henry. But you have all your wits about you, my dear sister! You are doing just as you should: the girl’s uncommon handsome, and should do well for herself. Ay, ay, you will be setting about the wedding preparations before the cat has time to lick her ear! Lady Bridlington, eh? One of the London nobs, I daresay: couldn’t be better! But it will cost a great deal!”
“Indeed, you are right, Sir John,” said Mrs. Tallant. “It will cost a very great deal, but when such an opportunity is offered every effort should be made to take advantage of it, I believe.”
“Ay, ay, you will be laying your money out to good purpose!” he nodded. “But can you trust this fine lady of yours to keep half-pay officers, and such-like, out of the girl’s way? It won’t do to have her running off with some penniless fellow, you know, and all your trouble wasted!”
The fact that the same thought had more than once crossed her mind did not make this piece of plain-speaking any more agreeable to Mrs. Tallant. She considered it extremely vulgar, and replied in a repressive tone that she believed she might depend on Arabella’s good sense.
“You had better drop a word of warning in your friend’s ear,” said Sir John bluntly. “You know, Sophia, if that girl of yours were to catch a man of property, and, damme, I don’t see why she shouldn’t!—it would be a great thing for her sisters! Ay, the more I think on it the better I like it! It is worth all the expense. When does she go? How do you mean to send her?”
“As to that, it is not yet decided, Sir John, but if Mrs. Caterham holds by her original scheme, and lets Miss Blackburn go next month—you must know that she is the governess, I daresay—she could travel with Arabella. I believe her home is in Surrey, so she must go to London.”
“But you won’t send little Bella on the stage-coach!”
Mrs. Tallant sighed. “My dear sir, the cost of posting is too great to be even thought of! I own, I do not like it, but beggars, you know, cannot be choosers!”
The Squire began to look very thoughtful. “Well, that won’t do,” he said presently. “No, no, we can’t have that! Driving up to your grand friend’s house in a hackney! We shall have to contrive a little, Sophia. Now, let me see!”
He sat staring into the fire for some minutes, while his sister-in-law pensively gazed out of the window, and tried not to let her mind dwell on what her sensitive husband’s feelings must be, could he but have had the least idea of what she was doing.