Lady Longridge's motherly heart! Who had ever heard an appeal to it before? She turned coldly round and said, "The story is very romantic, no doubt, but I should hardly have expected the loss, the loneliness, or the fair face to turn the head of a man close upon forty. I trust she has something more solid by way of recommendation. A well-stocked purse, or a goodly dowry in houses and land, would appeal with more power to my feelings than any of the qualifications you have named."
"Florence has a little property, but she can draw only the income from it, and that is about two hundred a year."
Lady Longridge fairly hissed out something in reply, but her son could not distinguish the words. Her face was, however, almost frightful in its anger, and there was silence for some minutes, because she would not trust herself to speak, and Sir Philip deemed it best to say nothing.
"How do you expect to keep up Northbrook?" she asked at last. "You know your position, and that the paying out of your sisters' fortunes left you but a narrow income, considering the calls upon you. As you did not increase it by economy, or by devoting yourself to the improvement of the estates, you were bound, if you did marry, to choose a wife with money. I saved and pinched and scraped out of my means. You spent all you had in your harum-scarum way, never resting under your own roof, as a decent Christian should, but wandering the world over, as if you had something on your conscience, and squandering your money on those who doubtless blessed you to your face and mocked you when your back was turned. Then—"
"Then, mother, I borrowed from you and I owe you money now; but, remember, you have had fair interest for it, regularly paid, and surely it has been worth something to reign at Northbrook for eighteen years, since I came of age."
"Only to lose my place now for that chit of a girl."
"Hush, mother! Say what you choose of me, but be silent or speak kindly of my wife. I was going to say that I do not think Florence would care to live at Northbrook, and my associations with my birthplace are none of the sweetest. Circumstances may, however, make it advisable for us to settle here. If so, there will be only room for one mistress."
Sir Philip had touched the one tender spot at last. Lady Longridge might have little room in her heart for her son, and none for his wife, but she did long to live and die mistress of Northbrook Hall.
"You must pay me the four thousand pounds you owe me, before I stir from this place," she said.
"That will be quite easy. You will remember that everything connected with the loan was done as formally as though I were borrowing from a stranger, and I am entitled to three months' notice, but if you want the four thousand you can have it. I had a letter from Mr. Melville quite lately, in which he asked if I knew of anyone who wished to borrow a few thousands, for he is at his wits' end how to invest some trust-money."