Lady William had a woman’s limited understanding of interest, that is, a woman’s view who has never had money to invest. She thought it meant something about five per cent, a little more or a little less, and replied accordingly that it meant a little more than two thousand pounds a year.
‘That’s not so much, is it, for a man like Cousin Will?’ ‘No, it is not so very much——’
‘And a cousin—that would be no fun. If I were to marry a cousin, I think I would much rather have Jim——’
‘Jim!’ cried Lady William, with a start. ‘Not for the world, Mab! an idle young man, with bad habits—you would never be so mad as that!’
‘Everybody is not made exactly alike, mother,’ said Mab gravely. ‘Jim is idle, it is true, and he always will be idle, should all the Rectory people go on at him till doomsday. The more reason that he should be married (if he is ever married) to some one who is very steady, and has money enough to live on, and can keep him straight.’
‘But, Mab,’ her mother said, with a gasp, ‘what reasoning is this? To put a premium on idleness, and save a man from himself.’
‘Well, mother, I’ve heard you say what a pity it was that people were so afraid of responsibility. I am not afraid of it. If I were to marry my cousin—which would be no fun at all, in the first place—I should certainly rather have Cousin Jim, whom I could be of most use to, than Cousin Will.’
LII
‘So that is all finished and settled and done with,’ said Leo Swinford, with no great expression of delight on his face.
‘You don’t seem to see the great happiness and satisfaction of it,’ said Lady William.