“But it is utterly out of the question. Of course he is a gentleman, and well educated, and has very agreeable manners; but, my dear, he told me himself that he is a farmer’s son, and has neither money nor family. Oh, dear—oh dear! it is all my fault for allowing you to be so much with him. But he seemed so little like a love-making sort of man, so plain and intellectual, I never dreamed any harm would come of it. I did certainly suggest to Dr. Graham that I ought not to leave you together while we were playing chess; but he reassured me so strongly that I thought no more about it. Sir Philip will be furious. He will never forgive me. And you—my poor dear child—I hope, oh, I do hope, that you have not grown fond of him.”
“Don’t worry, dear mamma. I don’t care a bit about him, at least not in that way. He is very clever, and very kind, and, I believe, very good, too, and I am sure he is fond of me, and would be very good to both of us; and it would be lovely, wouldn’t it, to be free of the Chase forever? As to his farm in Canada, he says it doesn’t matter about going to that yet, and that he has a lot more money saved than any one knows of, and that he will take me all over the world. You know Dr. Graham has always said a voyage to the Cape would do you good, and I thought of that directly; we would all go to the Cape together in a sailing ship. Think,” she exclaimed, springing up from her kneeling position, and beginning to pace restlessly up and down the room, “how beautiful it would be to be upon the great, wide sea, which I have only once seen in my life, with the bright sun sparkling on the waves, and you and I on deck under an awning, such as I have read about in books of travel; you on a deck-chair, and I mixing you your iced lemonade, and reading aloud while beautiful warm breezes blew over you and made you well; and above all,” here she came and knelt by Lady Cranstoun’s side, and lowered her voice to an impressive whisper, “with no Sir Philip!”
“Hush, hush, dear!” the elder lady exclaimed, nervously glancing at the door. “In your picture you leave out the man, I see. But what does it matter? Even if you loved him, and wanted to marry him for other reasons than to escape from this house, your father would not hear of it. He has said thousands of times that you must marry a title. Now, if it had only been Lord Carthew——”
“Don’t, mamma!” exclaimed the girl, for the first time blushing scarlet. “Lord Carthew detests me. Anyhow, we were not talking of him. Mr. Pritchard isn’t a bit afraid of Sir Philip. He says if he is the only obstruction, he can soon remove that. It appears he is coming into a title and fortune, and can prove it to Sir Philip. But even then,” she added, “I couldn’t marry him, could I, without loving him?”
“I should like to see you happy with a good husband, my darling,” said Lady Cranstoun, tears coming into her faded eyes as she stroked the girl’s cheek. “Of course, I would much prefer you to marry a man of good birth and of some fortune; but your happiness is the chief thing.”
A little later, Stella, going down to the drawing room for a novel which Lady Cranstoun was reading, was joined there by Lord Carthew.
“I have spoken to your father,” he said.
“What did he say?” inquired Stella, curiously.
“He offers no objection against me, provided I can succeed in winning your affections.”
“I am quite sure Sir Philip didn’t say that,” she exclaimed, laughing. “He wouldn’t think my affections had anything to do with the matter.”