Apparently Miss Perry had. Doubtless her understanding was a slow-moving and cumbrous mechanism which generally found infinite difficulty in assimilating the most obvious facts; but it was very difficult for the most obtuse person to misunderstand Caroline Crewkerne. Slowly but surely her hard lucidity percolated to the recesses of Miss Perry’s mind; and just as slowly and as surely as it did, large solemn tears welled into the eyes that had deepened to the color of violets. They rolled in ridiculous procession down the crimson cheeks.
Neither Caroline Crewkerne nor Cheriton was affected easily, but there was something in the solemn slow-drawn emotion of Miss Perry that imposed silence upon them. The silence that ensued was uncomfortable and by tacit consent it was left to Miss Perry herself to terminate it.
“It is so dear of you both,” she said, “to be so good to me. I shall write to dearest papa about you, but I p-r-r-romised Jim.”
Aunt Caroline snorted.
“And what do you suppose your father will say to you, you simpleton,” said she, “when he learns what you have done? Now take my advice. Send the man Lascelles to me. I will deal with him. And then you must prepare to marry Lord Cheriton some time in October.”
But Miss Perry sat the picture of woe. It is true that in the opinion of Cheriton she sat a perfectly enchanting picture of it; yet at the same time it gave him no particular pleasure to observe that the absurd creature was shedding real tears, tears which somehow seemed almost majestic in their simple sincerity.
Miss Perry was dismissed with strict instructions not to mention the subject to anyone.
“What a creature!” said Caroline Crewkerne, when the door had closed upon her niece.
She contented herself with that expression. As for Cheriton, he gave an amused shrug and said nothing. For all his nonchalance perhaps he could not help feeling that he had been tempting Providence. Yet so ingrained was his habit of cynicism that it may not have occurred to him that he had anything to fear from Jim Lascelles. The young fellow had not a shilling in the world; he had a good head on his shoulders; and he had been brought up properly. That in such circumstances he should have taken the unpardonable liberty of offering to marry Caroline Crewkerne’s niece was totally at variance with his knowledge of the world, and of human nature as he understood it.
Caroline Crewkerne was the first to speak.