Arabella shook her head. “Oh, no! it would not be of the least avail, I daresay! Foreigners,” she said largely, “have no notion how to manage children! What is to be done?”
“I cannot help feeling,” said Mr. Beaumaris, “that Jemmy would benefit by country air.”
This suggestion found favour. “Nothing could be better for him!” agreed Arabella. “Besides, there is no reason why he should tease you, I am sure! Only how may it be contrived?”
Much relieved at having so easily cleared this fence, Mr. Beaumaris said: “The notion did just cross my mind, ma’am, that if I were to take him into Hampshire, where I have estates, no doubt some respectable household might be found for him,”
“One of your tenants! The very thing!” exclaimed Arabella. “Quite a simple cottage, mind, and a sensible woman to take care of him! Only I am afraid she would have to be paid a small sum to do it”
Mr. Beaumaris, who felt that no sum could be too large for the ridding of his house of one small imp who threatened to disrupt it, bore up nobly under the warning, and said that he had envisaged this possibility, and was prepared to meet it. It then occurred to Arabella that he might reasonably expect so great an heiress as herself to bear the charge of her protégé and she embarked on a tangled explanation of why she could not at present do so. Mr. Beaumaris interrupted her speech when it showed signs of becoming ravelled beyond hope. “No, no, Miss Tallant!” he said. “Do not deny me this opportunity to perform a charitable action, I beg of you!”
So Arabella very kindly refrained from doing so, and bestowed so grateful a smile upon him that he felt himself to have been amply rewarded.
“Are you quite in disgrace with Lady Bridlington?” he asked quizzically.
She laughed, but looked a little guilty. “I was,” she owned. “But since she has seen that the story has not got about, she has forgiven me. She was persuaded that everyone would be laughing at me. As though I would care for such a thing as that, when I had but done my duty!”
“Certainly not!”