The Convenient Marriage Part 3

'You must get me a Captaincy,' said Rule. 'A Captaincy in the - in the 10th Foot, I think, but I am sure you will find out.'

'A Captaincy in the 10th Foot?' repeated Mr Gisborne. 'For whom, sir?'

'Now, what was the name?' wondered his lords.h.i.+p. 'Hawk - Hernshaw - Heron. I rather think it was Heron. For a Mr Edward Heron. Do you know a Mr Edward Heron?'

'No, sir, I don't.'

'No,' sighed Rule. 'Nor do I. It makes it very awkward for us, but I have great faith in you, Arnold. You will find out all about this Edward Heron.'

'I'll try, sir,' replied Mr Gisborne.

'I am afraid I give you a deal of trouble,' apologized his lords.h.i.+p, preparing to depart. At the door he looked back. 'By the way, Arnold, I think you may be under some slight misapprehension. It is the youngest Miss Winwood who does me the honour of accepting my hand.'

Mr Gisborne was startled. 'Miss Charlotte Winwood, sir?

The youngest Miss Winwood, I believe, is scarcely out of the schoolroom.'

'Certainly not Miss Charlotte Winwood,' said the Earl. 'I have it on excellent authority that nothing would induce Miss Charlotte to marry me.'

'Good G.o.d, my lord!' said Mr Gisborne blankly.

'Thank you, Arnold. You comfort me,' said his lords.h.i.+p, and went out.

Chapter Three.

THE youngest Miss Winwood's return to South Street was witnessed by both her sisters from the windows of the withdrawing-room. Her absence had certainly been remarked but since the porter was able to inform the rather agitated governess that Miss Horatia had gone out attended by her maid, no great concern was felt. It was odd of Horatia, and very wayward, but no doubt she had only stolen out to buy the coquelicot ribbons she had coveted in a milliner's window, or a chintz patch for a gown. This was Elizabeth's theory, delivered in her soft, peaceable voice, and it satisfied Lady Winwood, lying upon the sopha with her vinaigrette to hand.

The appearance of a town coach, drawn by perfectly matched bays with glittering harness, did not occasion more than a fleeting interest until it became apparent that this opulent equipage was going to draw up at the door of No 20.

Charlotte exclaimed: 'Lord, who can it be? Mama, a caller!'

She pressed her face against the window, and said: 'There is a crest on the panel, but I cannot distinguish - Lizzie, I believe it is Lord Rule!'

'Oh no!' Elizabeth fluttered, pressing a hand to her heart.

By this time the footman had sprung down, and opened the coach door. Charlotte grew pop-eyed. 'It's Horry!' she gasped.

Lady Winwood clutched the vinaigrette. 'Charlotte, my nerves!' she said in a fading voice.

'But, Mama, it is!' insisted Charlotte.

Elizabeth had a premonition. 'Oh, what can she have been doing?' she said, sinking into a chair, and growing quite pale.

'I hope nothing - nothing dreadful!'

Impetuous footsteps were heard on the stairs; the door was opened ungently, and Horatia stood before them, flushed and bright-eyed, and swinging her hat by its ribbon.

Lady Winwood's hands fumbled with her Medici scarf.

'Dearest, the draught!' she moaned. 'My poor head!'

'Pray, Horry, shut the door!' said Charlotte. 'How can you bounce so when you know how shattered Mama's nerves are?'

'Oh, I am sorry!' Horatia said, and carefully shut the door. 'I forgot. L-Lizzie, everything is settled, and you shall m-marry Edward!'

Lady Winwood was moved to sit up. 'Good G.o.d, the child's raving! Horatia, what - what have you been doing?'

Horatia tossed the cloak aside, and plumped down on the stool beside her mother's sopha. 'I've b-been to see Lord Rule!'

she announced.

'I knew it!' said Elizabeth, in the voice of Ca.s.sandra.

Lady Winwood sank back upon her cus.h.i.+ons with closed eyes. Charlotte, observing her alarming rigidity shrieked: 'Unnatural girl! Have you no consideration for our dearest Mama? Lizzie, hartshorn!'

The hartshorn, the vinaigrette, and some Hungary Water applied to the temples restored the afflicted Lady Winwood to life. She opened her eyes and found just strength to utter: 'What did the child say?'

Charlotte, fondly clasping her mother's frail hand, said: 'Mama, do not agitate yourself, I beg of you!'

'You n-need not be agitated, M-mama,' Horatia told her penitently. 'It is quite true that I've b-been to see Lord Rule, but-'

'Then all is at an end!' said Lady Winwood fatalistically.

'We may as well prepare to enter the Debtors' Prison. I am sure I do not mind for myself, for my Days are Numbered, but my beautiful Lizzie, my sweetest Charlotte-'

'M-mama, if only you w-would listen to me!' broke in Horatia. 'I have explained everything to L-Lord Rule, and-'

'Merciful heavens!' said Elizabeth. 'Not - not Edward?'

'Yes, Edward. Of course I told him about Edward. And he is n-not going to marry you, Lizzie, but he p-promised he would be Edward's P-patron instead-'

Lady Winwood had recourse to the vinaigrette again, and desired feebly to be told what she had ever done to deserve such calamity.

'And I explained how n-nothing would induce Charlotte to m-marry him, and he did not seem to m-mind that.'

'I shall die,' said Charlotte with resolution, 'of Mortification !'

'Oh, Horry dear!' sighed Elizabeth, between tears and laughter.

'And I asked him,' concluded Horatia triumphantly, 'if, he would marry m-me instead. And he is g-going to!'

Her relatives were bereft of speech. Even Lady Winwood apparently considered that the situation had gone beyond the powers of her vinaigrette to mend, for she allowed it to slip from her hand to the floor while she stared in a bemused way at her youngest-born.

It was Charlotte who found her voice first. 'Horatia, do you say that you had the Indelicacy, the Impropriety, the -the Forwardness, to ask Lord Rule to marry you?'

'Yes,' said Horatia staunchly. 'I had to.'

'And - and-' Charlotte groped for words - 'he consented to - to marry you in place of Lizzie?'

Horatia nodded.

'He cannot,' said Charlotte, 'have noticed the Stammer.'

Horatia put up her chin, 'I's-spoke to him about the S-stammer, and he said he l-liked it!'

Elizabeth rose up from her chair and clasped Horatia in her arms. 'Oh, why should he not? Dearest, dearest, never could I permit you to sacrifice yourself for me!'

Horatia suffered the embrace. 'Well, to tell you the truth, Lizzie, I would like to m-marry him. But I c-can't help wondering whether you are quite sure you d-don't want to?'

She searched her sister's face. 'Do-do you really like Edward better?'

'Oh, my love!'

'Well, I c-can't understand it,' said Horatia.

'It is not to be supposed,' stated Charlotte flatly, 'that Lord Rule was in earnest. Depend upon it, he thinks Horry a Mere Child.'

'N-no, he does not!' said Horatia, firing up. 'He w-was in earnest, and he is c-coming to tell M-mama at three this afternoon.'

'I beg that no one will expect me to face Lord Rule!' said Lady Winwood. 'I am ready to sink into the ground!'

'Will he come?' demanded Charlotte. 'What irremediable harm may not Horry's impropriety have wrought? We must ask ourselves, will Lord Rule desire to ally himself with a Family one of whose members has shown herself so dead to all feelings of Modesty and Female Reserve?'

'Charlotte, you shall not say that!' said Elizabeth with unwonted stringency. 'What should he think but that our dearest is but an impulsive child?'

'We must hope it,' Charlotte said heavily. 'But if she has divulged your attachment to Edward Heron I fear that all is at an end. We who know and value dear Horry do not notice her blemishes, but what gentleman would engage to marry her in place of the Beauty of the Family?'

'I thought of that myself,' admitted Horatia. 'He's-says he thinks he will grow used to my horrid eyebrows quite easily.

And I will't-tell you something, Charlotte! He said it would be a p-pity if I became any taller.'

'How mortifying it is to reflect that Lord Rule may have been amusing himself at the expense of a Winwood!' said Charlotte.

But it seemed that Lord Rule had not been amusing himself.

At three o'clock he walked up the steps of No. 20 South Street, and inquired for Lady Winwood.

In spite of her dramatic refusal to face the Earl, Lady Winwood had been induced to await him in the withdraw-ing-room, fortified by smelling-salts, and a new polonaise with tobine stripes which had arrived from her dressmaker's just in time to avert a nervous collapse.

Her interview with his lords.h.i.+p lasted for half an hour, at the end of which time the footman was dispatched to inform Miss Horatia that her presence in the withdrawing-room was desired.

'Aha!' cried Horatia, shooting a wicked glance at Charlotte, and springing to her feet.

Elizabeth caught her hands. 'Horry, it is not too late! If this arrangement is repugnant to you, for Heaven's sake speak, and I will throw myself upon Lord Rule's generosity!'

'Repugnant? S-stuff!' said Horatia, and danced out.

'Horry, Horry, at least let me straighten your sas.h.!.+' shrieked Charlotte.

'Too late,' Elizabeth said. She clasped her hands to her breast. 'If I could be a.s.sured that this is no Immolation upon the Altar of Sisterly Love!'

'If you wish to know what I think,' said Charlotte, 'Horry is very well pleased with herself.'

Horatia, opening the door into the withdrawing-room, found her mother actually upon her feet, the smelling-salts lying forgotten on an ormolu table by the fire. In the middle of the room Rule was standing, watching the door, one hand, with a great square sapphire glowing on it, resting on a chair-back.

He looked very much more magnificent and unapproachable in blue velvet and gold lacing than he had seemed in his riding habit, and for a moment Horatia surveyed him rather doubtfully. Then she saw him smile and was rea.s.sured., Lady Winwood swam towards her and embraced her. 'My dearest!' she said, apparently overcome. 'My lord, let my treasured child answer you with her own lips. Horatia love, Lord Rule has done you the honour to request your hand in marriage.'

'I't-told you he was going to, M-mama!' said Horatia incorrigibly.

'Horatia -I beg of you!' implored the long-suffering lady.

'Your curtsy, my love!'

Horatia sank obediently into a curtsy. The Earl took her hand, as she rose, and bowed deeply over it. He said, looking down at her with a laugh in his eyes: 'Madam, may I keep this little hand?'

Lady Winwood heaved a tremulous sigh, and wiped away a sympathetic tear with her handkerchief.

'P-prettyl' approved Horatia. 'Indeed you m-may, sir. It is very handsome of you to give me the p-pleasure of having you p-propose for me.'

Lady Winwood looked round apprehensively for her salts, but perceiving that his lords.h.i.+p was laughing, changed her mind. 'My baby... !' She said indulgently: 'As you see, my lord, she is all unspoiled.'

She did not leave the newly-plighted pair alone, and the Earl presently took his leave with equal correctness. The front door had barely closed behind him before Lady Winwood had clasped Horatia in fond embrace. 'Dearest child!' she said.

'You are very, very fortunate! So personable a man! Such delicacy!'

Charlotte put her head round the door. 'May we come in, Mama? Has he really offered for Horry?'

Lady Winwood dabbed at her eyes again. 'He is everything that I could wish for! Such refinement! Such ton!'

Elizabeth had taken Horatia's hand, but Charlotte said practically : 'Well, for my part, I think he must be doting. And repulsive as the thought is, I suppose the Settlements... ?'

'He is all that is generous!' sighed Lady Winwood.

'Then I'm sure I wish you joy, Horry,' said Charlotte.

'Though I must say that I consider you far too young and heedless to become the wife of any gentleman. And I only pray that Theresa Maulfrey will have enough proper feeling to refrain from chattering about this awkward business.'

It did not seem at first as though Mrs Maulfrey would be able to hold her tongue. Upon the announcement of the betrothal she came to South Street, just as her cousins knew she would, all agog to hear the whole story. She was palpably dissatisfied with Elizabeth's careful tale of 'a mistake', and demanded to know the truth. Lady Winwood, rising for once to the occasion, announced that the matter had been arranged by herself and his lords.h.i.+p, who had met Horatia and been straightway captivated by her.

With this Mrs Maulfrey had to be content, and after condoling with Elizabeth on having lost an Earl only to get a lieutenant in exchange, and with Charlotte on being left a spinster while a chit from the schoolroom made the match of the season", she departed, leaving a sense of relief behind her, and a strong odour of violet scent.