“Have you two nieces, Caroline?” said the Marquis. “That is interesting. When are we to have the opportunity of seeing the other one?”
“Next season—perhaps.”
As yet there had been no formal announcement of Cheriton’s engagement, but it was known to many. It is true that those who were best acquainted with him maintained an attitude of incredulity. So many times in the past had there been talk of entertaining at Cheriton House. Yet there was a consensus of opinion that he really meant to settle down at last; and while all disinterested people could not fail to admire his taste, the critical were a little inclined to doubt his wisdom. Still, there was no doubt about the beauty and the docility of his choice, and in her quaint way she had unmistakably the bel air. She was a good honest girl, a Wargrave, and the old woman of Hill Street could well afford to do something in the matter. Still, the knowing ones “could not see it at all”; those who were not so knowing thought that “Cheriton might have done worse.”
All the same, Miss Perry was famous and she was popular. Her simplicity was something that was growing very rare; she was unaffectedly good to everybody, and everybody could not help being grateful to her for her goodness, because it sprang straight from the heart. No matter whether people were important or unimportant, it made no difference to her. Great beauty and an absolute friendliness which is extended to all, which keeps the same gracious smile for the odd man about the stables that it has for the wearer of the Garter, will go far towards the conquest of the world.
Miss Perry had conquered her world. All agreed that Cheriton had done well. Yet the creature was not in the least happy. So much practice, however, had the Wargraves had in the course of the centuries in dissembling their unhappiness and in offering their heads to the block, that only four persons were able to suspect that a brave, smiling, and bountiful exterior concealed a broken heart.
Jim Lascelles was one. He knew for certain. Miss Burden was another. Caroline Crewkerne was no believer in broken hearts. For one thing, she had never had a heart of any sort to break. But she had seen those great damp splotches on the correspondence with her father, she had noticed that the creature’s appetite was not what it was; and there were half a dozen other symptoms that enabled her to put two and two together. As for the fourth person, it was Cheriton himself. He was a man of immense practical sagacity. The Lascelles affair was perfectly familiar to him in all its bearings. He himself was primarily responsible for it. And none knew better than did he that youth will be served.
During Jim’s stay at Barne Moor, Cheriton went out of his way to show him consideration. He behaved like a habitually courteous and broad-minded man of the world, who, so to speak, knew the whole alphabet of life, and if necessary could repeat it backwards.
“You have no right to be here, my dear fellow,” he said tacitly to Jim Lascelles; “but since my Yorkshire friend, Kendal, has blundered, as one’s Yorkshire friends generally do, and you find yourself in the wrong galley, behave just as you would under ordinary circumstances, and, if you have the courage, take up the parable more or less where you left it. After all, you were brought up together, and I am only an interloper, and an old one at that.”
It was bold and it was generous of Cheriton to take this course. But the young fellow Lascelles had behaved so well that he was bound to respect him. And he had a genuine liking for him too. Therefore he raised no objection to their spending long hours upon the moors with only one another for company, while he gossiped and shot birds, and fribbled and idled away his time indoors among more mature persons.
Still, it was trying Jim Lascelles somewhat highly. The test was a severer one than perhaps Cheriton knew. For Jim was confident that he had only to speak the word for the Goose Girl to marry him by special license at Barne Moor parish church. Once, indeed, they found themselves in it, since the Goose Girl was by way of being a connoisseur in churches; and they had a pleasant and instructive conversation with the vicar.