‘O Mr Etheridge, what a strange opinion you must have formed of me! I would marry Archie if he had not a sovereign to call his own.’
‘The charming imprudence of a girl in love. Then you would marry him in opposition to his father’s wishes?’
‘Now you ask me a question that I cannot answer. That, and that only, would cause me to hesitate.’
‘Why should the wishes of a selfish valetudinarian—of a man whom you have never seen—cause you to hesitate, or be allowed to come between you and the happiness of your life?’
‘Ah! but could I ever be really happy with the knowledge for ever in my mind that I had been the cause of separating a father from his son, and that by becoming Archie’s wife I had blighted the fairest prospects of his life? And then, perhaps—who can tell?—after a time he might become a little tired of me—men do sometimes tire of their wives, don’t they?—and then he might begin to remember and regret all that he had sacrificed in marrying me; and that, I think, would nearly break my heart.’
The old man laid his hand caressingly on her arm for a moment. ‘Well, well, we must hope for the best,’ he said. ‘We must hope that Sir William will not prove a very flinty-hearted papa.’
She smiled up gratefully in his face. ‘Tell me, Mr Etheridge, is Sir William a very terrible person to have to do with?’
He broke into a little laugh. ‘Terrible, miss? No; hardly that, I think; but eccentric, if you please. The fact is that Sir William is one of those men of whom it can never be predicated with certainty what view he will take, or what conclusion he will arrive at, with regard to any matter that may be brought before him. He has an obnoxious habit of thinking and deciding for himself, and is seldom led by the opinions of others. Yes, undoubtedly Sir William is a very eccentric man.’
They had got back to the bridge by this time. ‘Why, I declare, yonder comes Colonel Woodruffe!’ exclaimed Clarice. ‘I am so pleased—and so will Mora be.’
‘Evidently the colonel is a favourite,’ said Mr Etheridge drily.