Lady Tintern was pleased. She liked tributes to her intelligence as other women enjoy recognition of their good looks.
"It is very easy, to an observer," she said. "She is frightened at her own happiness. Yes, yes. And that cub of a boy would not make it easier. By-the-by, I came to talk of the boy. You are his guardian?"
"For a week."
"What does it signify for how long? Five minutes will settle my views. Thank Heaven I did not come later, or I should have had to talk to him, instead of to a man of sense. You must have seen what is going on. What do you think of it?"
"The arrangement suits me so admirably," said John, smiling, "that I am hardly to be relied upon for an impartial opinion."
"Will you tell me his circumstances?"
John explained them in a few words, and with admirable terseness and lucidity; and she nodded comprehensively all the while.
"That's capital. He can't make ducks and drakes of it. All tied up on the children. I hope they will have a dozen. It would serve Sarah right. Now for my side. Whatever sum the trustees decide to settle upon Sir Peter's wife, I will put down double that sum as Sarah's dowry. Our solicitors can fight the rest out between them. The property is much better than I had been given any reason to suspect. I have no more to say. They can be married in a month. That is settled. I never linger over business. We may shake hands on it." They did so with great cordiality. "It is not that I am overjoyed at the match," she explained, with great frankness. "I think Sarah is a fool to marry a boy. But I have observed she is a fool who always knows her own mind. The fancies of some girls of that age are not worth attending to."
"Miss Sarah is a young lady of character," said John, gravely.
"Ay, she will settle him," said Lady Tintern. Her small, grim face relaxed into a witchlike smile.