Mr. Scarborough's Family Part 48

"I cannot tell him that he ought to find five hundred pounds for Mr.

Juniper."

"Perhaps four would do."

"Nor can I ask him to drive a bargain."

"How much would he give her--to be married?"

"Why should he give her anything? He feeds her and gives her clothes. It is only fit that the truth should be explained to you. Girls so circ.u.mstanced, when they are clothed and fed by their own fathers, must be married without fortunes or must remain unmarried. As Sophie, and Georgina, and Minna, and Brenda come up, the same requests will be made."

"Poor Potsey!" said the mother. For Potsey was a plain girl.

"If this be done for Amelia, must it not be done for all of them? Papa is not a rich man, but he has been very generous. Is it fair to ask him for five hundred pounds to give to--Mr. Juniper?"

"A gentleman nowadays does not like not to get something."

"Then a gentleman must go where something is to be got. The truth has to be told, Aunt Carroll. My father is willing enough to do what he can for you and the girls, but I do not think that he will give five hundred pounds to Mr. Juniper."

"It is once for all. Four hundred pounds, perhaps, would do."

"I do not think that he can make a bargain, nor that he will pay any sum to Mr. Juniper."

"To get one of them off would be so much! What is to become of them? To have one married would be the way for others. Oh, Dorothy, if you would only think of my condition! I know your papa will do what you tell him."

Dolly felt that her father would be more likely to do it if she were not to interfere at all; but she could not say that. She did feel the request to be altogether unreasonable. She struggled to avert from her own mind all feeling of dislike for the girl, and to look at it as she might have done if Amelia had been her special friend.

"Aunt Carroll," she said, "you had better go up to London and see my father there--in his chambers. You will catch him if you go at once."

"Alone?"

"Yes, alone. Tell him about the girl's marriage, and let him judge what he ought to do."

"Could not you come with me?"

"No. You don't understand. I have to think of his money. He can say what he will do with his own."

"He will never give it without coming to you."

"He never will if he does come to me. You may prevail with him. A man may throw away his own money as he pleases. I cannot tell him that he ought to do it. You may say that you have told me, and that I have sent you to him. And tell him, let him do what he will, that I shall find no fault with him. If you can understand me and him you will know that I can do nothing for you beyond that." Then Dolly took her leave and went home.

The mother, turning it all over in her mind, did understand something of her niece, and went off to London as quick as the omnibus could take her. There she did see her brother, and he came back, in consequence, to dinner a little earlier than usual.

"Why did you send my sister to me?" were the first words which he said to Dolly.

"Because it was your business, and not mine."

"How dare you separate my business and yours? What do you think I have done?"

"Given the young lady five hundred pounds down on the nail."

"Worse than that."

"Worse?"

"Much worse. But why did you send my sister to my chambers?"

"But what have you done, papa? You don't mean that you have given the shark more than he demands?"

"I don't know that he's a shark. Why shouldn't the man want five hundred pounds with his wife? Mr. Barry would want much more with you, and would be ent.i.tled to ask for much more."

"You are my father."

"Yes; but those poor girls have been taught to look upon me almost as their father."

"But what have you done?"

"I have promised them each three hundred and fifty pounds on their wedding day,--three hundred pounds to go to their husbands, and fifty pounds for wedding expenses,--on condition that they marry with my approval. I shall not be so hard to please for them as for you."

"And you have approved of Mr. Juniper?"

"I have already set on foot inquiries down at Newmarket; and I have made an exception in favor of Mr. Juniper. He is to have four hundred and fifty pounds. Jane only asked four hundred pounds to begin with. You are not to find fault with me."

"No; that is part of the bargain. I wonder whether my aunt knew what a thoroughly good-natured thing I did. We must have no more puddings now, and you must come down by the omnibus."

"It is not quite so bad as that, Dolly."

"When one has given away one's money extravagantly one ought to be made to feel the pinch one's self. But dear, dear, darling old man! why shouldn't you give away your money as you please? I don't want it. I am not in the least afraid but what there will be plenty for me. But when the girl talks about her five hundred pounds so glibly, as though she had a right to expect it, and spoke of this jockey with such inward pride of heart--"

"A girl ought to be proud of her husband."

"Your niece ought not to be proud of marrying a groom. But she angered me, and so did my aunt,--though I pitied her. Then I reflected that they could get nothing from me in my anger,--not even a promise of a good word. So I sent her to you. It was, at any rate, the best thing I could do for them." Mr. Grey thought that it was.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

MR. BARRY AND MR. JUNIPER.

The joy in Bolsover Terrace was intense when Mrs. Carroll returned home.

"We are all to have three hundred and fifty pound fortunes when we get husbands!" said Georgina, antic.i.p.ating at once the pleasures of matrimony.

"I am to have four hundred and fifty," said Amelia. "I do think he might have made it five hundred pounds. If I had it to give away, I never would show the cloven foot about the last fifty pounds!"

"But he's only to have four hundred pounds," said Sophia. "Your things are to be bought with the other fifty pounds."

"I never can do it for fifty pounds," said Amelia. "I did not expect that I was to find my own trousseau out of my own fortune."