“It came to my ears and I saw for myself that one whom I knew slightly and did not like was paying you attentions, and it might be, as I also heard, was favoured by you. So it seemed my duty to make enquiries about Mr. Crashaw.”
“And?”
“There is nothing against his character, and I have heard much good of him—that he has cultured tastes and is very well liked by those who know him; personally we could never be friends, for various reasons, but he... is not unworthy to be the husband of... a good woman. That is all I have to say”; and the saying of it was plainly very hard to the minister.
“You recommend me to marry Mr. Crashaw, if that gentleman should do me the honour to ask my hand, or do you propose to suggest this step to him, so as to complete your duty as guardian?” Mrs. Arkwright was now standing and regarding Egerton with fierce scorn.
“My information seemed to me reliable”—he was also standing, white and pained—“and I thought it would help you in that case to know what I have told you, when you came to decide.”
“If I knew who told you such falsehoods, I would never speak to them again, and I would make them suffer for their words. Mr. Crashaw! and it was to that cynical, worldly, supercilious tailor's block you were to marry me. What ill have I done you?”
“God knows I did not desire.... I mean... do you not see that I tried to do what was right at a cost?... Why be so angry with me?”
“Because I do not really care what any person in this town or all Yorkshire says about me, but I do care and cannot endure that you should turn against me, and be content to see me Crashaw's wife or any other man's.” And she drove the minister across the room in her wrath—he had never seen her so beautiful—till he stood with his back to the door, and she before him as a lioness robbed of her cubs.
“It has been my mistake, for I understand not women,” he said, with proud humility. “I beg your pardon, and am more than ever... your servant.”
She looked at him stormily for ten seconds; then she turned away. “If that is all you have to say, you need not come again to this house.”