“Oh, yes, indeed I think you should! You will not wish to stay here with that creature dying abovestairs.” He checked himself, and colored. “I beg pardon! I was forgetting—”
“You need not beg my pardon. I never saw your cousin until an hour ago,” she said.
“You—Mrs. Cheviot, you do not tell me that you responded to the advertisement which my brother caused to be—”
“Oh, no! It was all a mistake. I am a governess. I came to take up a position in quite another household, and, in error, stepped into your brother’s carriage, which was waiting at the coach stop. But why I have allowed myself to be thrust into marrying your dreadful cousin I cannot tell! I think I must be as mad as your brother!”
“Well, it is all very odd,” said John, “but if Carlyon thought you should marry Cheviot you may depend upon it you have done the right thing. You must not be thinking that he is mad. Indeed, I can’t think how you should do so, for I never knew anyone with a better understanding. I will go and fetch the curricle.”
Elinor had perforce to acquiesce, and in a very few minutes was stepping up once more into this vehicle. John was careful to wrap the rug securely about her, and drove off, holding the horses to a steady trot.
“You know, if you should not object, I should be very glad to know how all this business came about,” he suggested.
She told him her share in the evening’s events. He listened in a good deal of surprise, and his comments were those of a sensible man. He had a deliberate way of speaking, and she thought that he resembled Carlyon more nearly than did his youngest brother. In appearance, he was very like him, although half a head shorter. Both air and address were good, and his manners were conciliating. Elinor found it easy to confide in him, for although he appeared to be quite uncritical of Carlyon’s actions, he appreciated the delicacy of her position, and fully entered into her feelings upon the event.
“It is an awkward business indeed!” he said. “It is too bad of Nicky! As though my brother had not had enough to bear without this catastrophe!”
She ventured to suggest that Nicky seemed not to have been able to avoid the encounter.