“La, Harry!” said Polly from the side of the fire, “how should he think she had a fortune? Fortunes don’t grow on every tree. And how do you know as he has got that far? A young man may keep company with a girl for long enough, and yet never go as far as that.”
“You must allow me to know best, my love,” said the Captain. “I hope he is not trifling with my girl’s affections. If he is he has Harry Despard to deal with, I’d have him to know. By Jove, if I thought that!”
“I dare say it’s nothing but keeping company,” said Polly, holding up her foot to the fire. “Taking a walk together, or a talk; there’s nothing wrong in that. She wants her bit of fun as well as other girls. I’m not the one to stand up for Miss Lottie, for it’s not what she’d do for me; but if it’s only her bit of fun you shouldn’t be hard upon her, Harry; if my pa had hauled me up for that——”
Lottie could not bear it any longer. “Do you wish me to stay,” she said, “papa? can you wish me to stay?” The Captain looked from his wife in her easy attitude to his daughter, pale with indignation and horror.
“My love,” he said, with mild remonstrance, “there are different ways of speaking in different spheres. Lottie is an only daughter, and has been very carefully brought up. But, my child,” the Captain added, turning to Lottie, “you must not be neglected now. I will make it my business to-morrow to see Mr. Ridsdale, to ascertain what his intentions are. Your interests shall not suffer from any carelessness.”
“Papa,” cried Lottie in despair, “you will not do anything so cruel; you could not treat me so! Wait—only wait—a few days—three or four days!”
Polly was so much interested that she let her dress drop over her ankles and turned round. “Don’t you see,” she said, “that she feels he’s coming to the point without any bother? That’s always a deal the best way. It can’t do no harm, as I can see, to wait for three or four days.”
“By Jove, but it will, though,” said Captain Despard with sudden impatience, “all the harm in the world. You’ll allow me to understand my own business. It is clearly time for a man to interfere. I shall see Mr. Ridsdale to-morrow, if all the women in the world were to try their skill and hold me back. Hold your tongue, Mrs. Despard; be quiet, Lottie. When a man is a husband and a father he is the best judge of his own duties. It is now my time to interfere.”
Polly was really concerned; she had a fellow feeling for the girl whose rights were thus interfered with. “Don’t you mind,” she said, turning to Lottie with a half-audible whisper. “If he’s coming to the point himself it won’t do no harm, and if he ain’t it will give him a push, and let him see what’s expected of him. I ain’t one for interfering myself, but if you can’t help it you must just put up with it; and I don’t think, after all, it will do so very much harm.”
Now Lottie ought to have been grateful for this well-intentioned and amiable remark, but she was not. On the contrary, her anger rose more wildly against the stranger who thus attempted to console her, than it did against her father, whose sudden resolution was so painful to her. She gave Polly a look of wrath, and, forgetting even civility, darted out of the room and upstairs in vehement resentment. Polly was not so much angry as amazed to the point of consternation. She gasped for the breath which was taken away by Lottie’s sudden flight. “Well!” she exclaimed, “that’s manners, that is! that’s what you call being brought up careful! A young unmarried girl, as is nothing and nobody, rushing out of a room like that before a married lady and her Pa’s wife!”