‘I can hardly believe that; but we must make allowances. If Corisande accepts him, we may be thankful. He might have been caught by some smart colonial girl. Some of them are very good-looking.’
‘Are they, indeed? Who is a snob now? as you sometimes say to me. And what are we but colonial?’
‘Oh, but we’re different!’
‘I can’t see it. Dad has been lucky, and we are ever so rich—of course “in the swim,” and so on; but as for being anything that entitles us to look down on our countrywomen, the idea is ludicrous. Don’t let people say we can’t stand our oats.’
‘I apologise, and promise not to offend again. Of course it’s absurd to talk as if we were anything but middle-class people, though of course the Banneret family is as old as the Heptarchy.’
‘That’s very well to know; but the less we bother about family descent, the more people will think of us. The Honourable Corisande is a good sort, and an Earl’s daughter. Rank, when [455] ]there’s money to back it up, is a good thing socially. No sensible person denies it. But the woman, the real woman, apart from all other considerations, is what makes for happiness in marriage, or otherwise. We know this one to be a straight, plucky, good-tempered girl, with no nonsense about her; fond too of Reggie, which is everything. So if the high contracting parties agree about settlements and things, it will be all plain sailing.’
‘It’s a big if; but Reggie’s good-looking, clever, and presentable—well off too. He’s a catch as men go. I daresay it will come off. But will she go to West Australia?’
‘If she cares about him, she’ll go anywhere, and be happy if he is with her; if she only cares about herself, she’ll be miserable everywhere, and it won’t matter where she goes.’
Not many days after this important colloquy, the arrival was announced in the society papers of the Earl and Countess of Hexham and their daughters at Hexham Hall, which they were revisiting on the invitation of the owner. Mr. Banneret and his eldest son, lately returned from West Australia, had been on a tour of inspection over their extensive mining and other properties. This information was followed by notices of various hunting fixtures, at which the Misses Banneret and their brother, accompanied by the Earl of Hexham and the Honourable Corisande Aylmer, took leading positions. They were admirably mounted, and, like all Australian colonists, rode fearlessly yet with judgment. Lady Hexham, [456] ]with Mrs. Banneret and the Honourable Adeline Aylmer, drove to the meet in the Hexham landau. There were other functions and festivities, few of which the young people missed; as, indeed, why should they? Youth is the time for enjoyment, and being all of the right age, healthy, happy, and hopeful, they enjoyed the pleasures suitable to the season, to their age and position, with all the ardour of early youth. They went everywhere and did everything,—hunting, polo, balls, garden parties. It did not pass without notice that the young people of the new and the old Hexham families were constantly together, and that at all social gatherings and entertainments Reggie Banneret was never very far from the Honourable Corisande’s vicinity. Of course the heads of departments, not to mention the juniors of both families, were not unobservant of these coincidences, but like wise parents and relations ‘went on sayin’ nothin’’ until events should shape themselves definitely.
So it came to pass, after one of the great functions of the period—to be precise, it was the annual county ball—that Corisande came to her mother with her confession. Reggie Banneret had spoken out—said, in fact, that he had felt from the first moment he saw her that there was no other woman in the world for him, and so on, and so on. ‘I won’t bore you, mother,’ said the girl, ‘but he said all the usual things men say at such times, I suppose, and a few more. He is clever, though a trifle too romantic—isn’t he? and—I love him.’