CHAPTER XIX.
"Well! I do declare! some people have the most marvellous goodfortune!" exclaimed Sir Patrick next morning turning to Marion, with anewspaper before him. "Here is an account of Granville--RichardGranville--being engaged in a splendid adventure. I might live forever, and not meet with such a thing. He has rescued Miss Howard, theheiress, from that mad cousin who haunts her with some love-and-murderthreats, and who will positively some day assassinate her, like theMiss Raes and Miss Shuckburghs of former times. These very good people,like Granville, who profess to be quite above the world, are all veryfond of money. Ten to one, Granville marries Miss Howard in a month."
"So the young lady is to be murdered first, and married immediatelyafterwards!" said Marion, laughing to see her brother's impetuosity."The heroine of that story is, after all, only my old school companion,Caroline Smythe. She has been persecuted by this man, she tells me,ever since her childhood, but now he must be put in confinement forlife; and--and--as for Mr. Granville,--Patrick,--with your leave, Ihave a very private and particular reason for believing heis--previously engaged."
A brilliant blush mounted to Marion's temples, while her brother mighthave almost heard her trembling; but a smile of conscious happinessplayed round her mouth, while her long eyelashes drooped over herburning cheeks when she spoke these words in an accent of pleased buttremulous emotion; and Sir Patrick, after gazing in her countenance fora moment with an expression of angry perplexity, suddenly started onhis feet, crumpling up the newspaper in his hand, with a fieryexclamation of rage, saying,
"Speak again, Marion; tell me what this means. The most uncommon thingin this world is a direct answer; but your blushes are like no otherperson's, for they betray everything. Girls, from the very beginning oftime, have always found out the very last man on earth they ought tolike, and live in a state of romantic misery till they can marry him.But it shall never be! I hate and detest Granville! He has injured me!He has caused all my recent sufferings. He shall feel what I have felt.I have the power now, and the will to be revenged. In his sacredprofession he dare not and cannot marry you without my consent--andnever! no never, shall he have it. Marion, you are a mere child yet!you do not know your own value, and would let yourself go at a merepepper-corn rent! Granville would become a perfect beggar if he losesour law-suit. You ought to be offered the first match in Scotland."
"So I am," replied Marion, in a low and gentle voice. "Mr. Granvillescarcely has his equal in the world."
"Pshaw! nonsense! I have other views for you! Marion, you have not anidea of the sensation you make. My friends are all raving about you. Inever understood till now why you cared so little about any of them.Let Agnes look to her laurels, for I am in more than one secret alreadythat would astonish her. Granville must be allowed to follow up hisadventure with the heiress. Never mention his name to me again. You maydepend upon it, in a month he will be ready and willing to marry MissHoward."
"Let your consent depend upon Richard's constancy, and then I shall besecure," answered Marion, with a playful smile. "He shall be at libertyto change his mind on a moment's notice; but, in the mean time,Patrick, I have a great idea that he will continue always the same; andbe assured that I certainly shall."
"Pshaw! nonsense, Marion! You never could be satisfied with the stupidsort of happiness to be found in a hum-drum parsonage. Give me no moreof your love-in-a-cottage ideas, when I know you have a chance of--of,no matter who! somebody worth a dozen Mr. Granvilles, and who could buyhim up a hundred times over."
"One Mr. Granville is quite enough," replied Marion, smiling. "If hewere like the Emperor of China, cousin-german to the stars, and uncleto the moon, I could not think more of him. Riches are only to bevalued for the use people make of them, but he is 'more bent to raisethe wretched than to rise.' Very little is essential, Patrick, 'whenhumble happiness endears each scene;' and nothing more is indispensableto me than to be so loved by one who is deserving of my love in return.How much rather I would live with a poor man who is liberal, than witha rich man who is avaricious; and Richard's wealth, though not great,is furnished with wings to fly away on a thousand embassies of mercyand liberality."
"I wish mine had wings to come, instead of to go; but say what youwill, it bores me to hear of Granville, he is so absurdly differentfrom everybody else."
"So much the worse for everybody else," observed Marion, with agood-humored smile. "Is that the blackest count in your indictment?"
"And bad enough, too! I'm told there's not a garret nor a dingycellar-full of misery in the city, where Granville is not upon visitingterms. He is a perfect Humane Society in himself. I daresay he willreceive a public dinner and a piece of plate from the beggars at last."
"Let me entreat, Marion," said Agnes, who had entered during thediscussion, "that you will not be running about with those Granvilles,in search of typhus fever or small-pox. You really ought to befumigated every time you return from these houses, where the people areall dying of dirt."
"When Lady Towercliffe recommended her husband's old castle in thecountry to me once, for the shooting, she finished the catalogue of itsmany perfections, by saying, 'and we have such very pleasant beggars!"observed Sir Patrick, laughing. "I should certainly have been temptedto bag a few brace of them! The Irish fellow whom you may rememberbesetting my door so long in Edinburgh, without extracting a _sous_,came up to me lately, in the coolest manner imaginable, and said, 'youmust find another beggar, Sir Patrick, for the situation here is notworth keeping!' I gave the rascal half a sovereign for his humor, andnever saw his face again."
"It is all very well, if beggars find us out, to give a trifle, and soget rid of their importunity," said Agnes, in her most benevolentaccent, "but the idea of setting out on a crusade to find them out, israther too amusing. I am immensely charitable, however, in referringcases of distress to my friends, but benevolence is the most expensiveof all virtues to set up for."
"Better do too much than too little," replied Marion. "We must notsuppose every man in want is either a knave or a fool, and noremembrance will last so long in our minds as the good we have done, orleft undone, for we gain the highest happiness to ourselves bydispensing it to others. Yesterday, Mr. Granville relieved a poor manfrom actual starvation, nearly ninety years old."
"Was he an orphan?" asked Sir Patrick, in a rallying tone. "What couldthe old fellow be doing in the world so long! but if I might be allowedto give an opinion, which I never do, it is, that you should avoidthose dens of infection and filth."
"There is no absurd romance in their benevolence, and Clara is neverpermitted by her brother to visit anywhere, till he has personallyascertained that there is no contagion of either the scarlet, yellow,or typhus fever in the house," continued Marion; "but we accompaniedhim last week to see a poor woman who was in a darkened room, with herface muffled up, and yet I could not but fancy the tone of her voicefamiliar to me. I was on the point of telling her so when the dooropened, and who should come in but my uncle's clerk, Mr. Howard, whoseemed so caught! One seldom can know who are charitable and kind inthis world, for I never suspected him of being a good Samaritan. Hesaid it must have been a mistake about my ever having heard the poorcreature's voice before, as to his certain knowledge she has beenbedridden these ten years; therefore, Clara and I gave her all we couldspare and came away. There was only one seat in the room, and nothingelse but the naked walls!"
"How very indecent!" said Sir Patrick, taking up the newspapers, "those_pauvres honteuses_ have a sad life of it! You will positively drawtears from my eyes!"
"Nothing will do that but a mouthful of mustard," replied Marion, witha brilliant smile. "It would be more to the purpose if I drew ashilling from your purse! You have no idea, Patrick, how many starvingpeople there are in the very houses that you see from these windows!"
"Well, really! I wish everybody had L5,000 a year," observed Agnes,yawning. "If we could build an addition to the world it would be agreat convenience! There certainly are too many of us
!"
"That is a most original and interesting remark of yours!" exclaimedSir Patrick, laughing. "We have certainly more cats than can kill mice.I did hear that it was very seriously debated at the SpeculativeSociety lately whether the creation of the world had been on the wholean advantage to Ireland or not! How the question was decided I forgotto ask!"
"No doubt the existence of every living being must be an advantage, ifrightly used," observed Marion, in a gentle, diffident voice, "but ifnot, then certainly it were better never to have been born."
"That is your last new importation of Granville-ism," said Agnes,satirically. "Well, I would much rather, Marion, that you took thetyphus fever, than that you became a methodist!--Pray do not infect mewith either the one or the other."
"There is always more contagion in what is evil than in what is good,"replied Marion. "Fevers are infectious, but health is not. Most of theillness I have seen lately arises from bad food, or rather from no foodat all."
"It occurs to me," said Sir Patrick, throwing down his newspaper, "thatas all rivers are formed of drinkable water, it is most unlucky thatthe ground is not formed of eatable bread! What a world of trouble itwould save about the corn laws!"
"But in such a case," replied Marion, laughing, "no man would work, andthe stones on the road might have to break themselves!"
"If the weather, too, were permitted to be regulated by act ofParliament, how droll it would be to read a petition from the farmersof Mid-Lothian against the late excessive rains, or from the hackneycoachmen against a long continuance of fine weather. How I should liketo see the summer with which any one of my tenants would be satisfied!"
"Of course it is their business to complain, or you would increasetheir rents. If a farmer came to your factor in ecstacies with hiscrops, and wishing a renewal of his lease, what terms would satisfyyou? We are all like buckets in a well--what raises one depressesanother, _ainsi va le monde_."
Modern Flirtations: A Novel Page 20