“Ah! Miss Dove, I shall venture to speak more plainly soon, in the hope that you will listen to me, for I—”
“Papa, dear,” cried Edith, as they drew near to the fishing party, who were resting whilst the gamekeeper arranged some fishing rods.
After this decisive check to the financier’s love-making, he strolled away and tried to enjoy a cigarette on the bank of the pond, while Edith joined her father and the doctor; and very glad she was of this opportunity of stopping the financier’s ungracious and distasteful proposal.
Presumably Mr Falcon’s great object was to get accepted as quickly as possible, lest some unforeseen circumstances should arise which might upset his schemes, such as a sudden change of mind and occupation on the part of Harry Goodall. Mr Falcon was, however, secretly prepared with another plan to prevent Goodall from visiting the Doves, and he intended to try it if he thought it probable that the aeronaut would give up ballooning as a step to an introduction to Wedwell Park. And the estate was worth fighting for—it was 300 acres in extent, well wooded, and with a grand old mansion in the centre, surrounded by ornamental gardens. Away towards the sea there was a good view of the South Downs—altogether it was a charming spot.
But Edith Dove was not so easily won. She studiously declined Mr Falcon’s attentions, although he was not a man to be easily repulsed, for he knew that in his case there was no time to be lost.
Mr Falcon had thus far managed to keep the name of Harry Goodall in the background, and, strange to say, Edith had never been known to fall in love, although her father and she had many friends, including county families and distinguished personages; but they neither of them cared much for entertaining mere fashionable callers, although given particularly to hospitality when men of science or women of celebrity and worth were concerned, even if they had risen from the more humble ranks of life.
The financier, though not a general favourite at Wedwell, found a warm supporter in Doctor Peters, who was the family medical attendant, and was thought by some to have been a former friend of Falcon’s, or a relative. But the doctor, who took instinctively to the financier was a crotchety, inquisitive old man, and wanted to find out where Falcon was born, and to dive into family matters, which he didn’t care to explain. Another reason why the doctor liked him was because, whilst in Sydney, he had helped and got into a good situation a scapegrace connection of the doctor’s.
Although the doctor and Squire Dove were so partial to fishing, the financier did not care much for it, as he was no sportsman. Indeed, he had admitted to the doctor that he was certainly not enamoured of shooting, as he had been shot himself very recently, by a rascally fellow who fired at him down in Essex.
Mr Falcon’s visit that day, to which we are alluding, was not only to pursue his attentions to Miss Dove, but also to privately consult his new friend the doctor, who could give him advice professionally, and might also expedite, if asked to do so, not only a forthcoming monetary transaction with the squire, but the doctor might advise him about introducing to the notice of the Doves his ideas relative to a flying machine.
When that great financial affair was satisfactorily concluded, Doctor Peters was a witness to the squire’s payment of cash, and to the signature of both to a deed, after which Mr Falcon went home with the doctor, as he wished to have a confidential chat with him.