"George, you are cruel, even more than crafty. As if I did anything so low as that! But will you assure me, upon your honour, that you did not encourage him to—to try what he has been trying?"
"Not only that, but I did all I could to damp him off, so far as such a dry fellow could be damped. I told him to hold off, while the Earl was in the running."
"There was no Earl in the running. This is too bad of you. It was only the walking that Lord Melladew went in for, and I am sure he meant no harm by that."
"Well, he made the running fast enough, when they peppered his gaiters, and some one else did the tumbling. But I told Jackson to hold off, for I was sure that he had no chance yet. He is a decent sort of fellow enough in his way; but what chance could he have against a belted Earl, and a gaitered Earl too, who can shriek in sonnets? Poor Stoneman could scarcely put thumb to rhyme with mum; and mum he should have been, though it is rather hard upon him. Never mind, he can find some other girl, when he gets over it. I heard of a Duke's daughter who was wild to catch him. But he is much too hard hit, to think of any one for years."
"One of Mr. Erricker's tales, I daresay," said Grace, with a little sigh of sympathy, as I fetched a sham groan for my poor friend, "about that beautiful Duke's daughter. As if any girl with any self-respect would allow herself to be talked of in that way! And as if Mr. Stoneman would permit it for a moment! However, you seem to have thoroughly discussed my case. Did you settle what my pin-money was to be? Oh, George, George, will you never understand how very different we are from you? I did think I could have respected Mr. Stoneman; but when I find out that he has been to you, trying to buy me like a colliery share, or not even that, for it is all divorce now—to take me on lease like a cottage or a stable,—oh, I see why you took me for a beehive now; but you'll find less of honey than of sting in me, when you buy and sell me by the pound like this."
What a fool that stockbroker must have been to mention my name in the matter, for it was sure to set her off upon this sort of tack! However, it proved afterwards that she, being perfectly calm, while he was in a frightful flurry, had extracted from him with the greatest ease everything she cared to know, till she came with the usual leaps and bounds of feminine reason to the wrong conclusion—that I had suggested and worked up the whole affair.
"Now go to bed, my dear child," I said, perceiving how vain it was to argue now; "I have business to see to, and even you can scarcely expect me to be swallowed up in your affairs, when you make a point of disliking this man, because your own brother likes him."
That little turn was almost worthy of her own ingenuity. She looked at me with a twinkle, because it was so like what she herself in my position would have said, and then after wishing me good-night, she added—
"But I never said a word about disliking him. There has scarcely been time enough for that as yet. Women very seldom form those sudden prejudices. That they leave for the lords of creation."
As she vanished with this very poor miss-fire, I began to put two and two together, and arrived at the conclusion that the stockbroker's case was not altogether hopeless. She had not come to care about him yet perhaps; but now he would be in her thoughts more often; and if he kept his distance, and looked downcast, and did a lot of good among the poor with strict orders to have it kept secret, and caused general uneasiness about his health; above all, if he could only be bankrupt,—without losing his cash, which of course would never do,—I could not see why he should not have a Mrs. Stoneman, who belonged to an old Saxon family, and had gold enough in her heart and head to do without any in her maiden pocket, and who was blest with a brother of the name of George.