“Do not let him deceive you, my unhappy child!” said Miss Grantham. “He will cast you aside as he has cast me! Oh, to think that I should have given my poor heart to a rake!”
“Deb!” exclaimed his lordship, horrified. “I’m not! Indeed, I’m not! And you never said you would marry me! It is not as though—”
“My whole life is blighted!” said Miss Grantham, in a hollow voice. “I shall very likely go into a decline!”
“Deb!” said his lordship, in quite a different voice. “Well, upon my word! Deb, if you don’t stop this instant, I’ll—I’ll shake you!”
Miss Grantham raised her head, and mopped her streaming eyes. “Oh Adrian, you foolish boy!” she said. “What in the world did you think I threw you together for, if not for this? I never had the least intention of marrying you!”
This disclosure astonished Miss Laxton so much that she was quite unable to do more than gaze at her hostess. Lord Mablethorpe, however, drew a sigh of heartfelt relief, and grinned. “It’s just like you to roast me! Somehow, I could not help thinking that you did not care for me. But I have behaved very badly to you, and I know it.”
“My poor boy, I fear that it is you who have been the victim. Don’t give it another thought! I wish you both very happy, and I am sure you were made for one another. Indeed, I feel that I have made up an unexceptionable match between you! We have now only to consider what is to be done next.”
Miss Laxton, recovering from her stupor, cast herself upon Deborah’s bosom, crying: “Oh, you are so good to me! I feel so dreadfully at having done such a thing! How can you not wish to marry him?”
“It is very bad taste on my part, indeed,” admitted Miss Grantham. “Perhaps I was born to be a spinster. But do not let us talk about me, for I shall do very well, I assure you. We must decide what is best to be done with you. Your parents can have no objection, I imagine, to your marriage with Adrian.”
“I am not as rich as Filey. I have not the half of his wealth,” said his lordship, looking anxious.
“You are not precisely a pauper, however. I call it a very good match, and so, I am persuaded, will Lord Laxton.”
“My brother Arnold told me that Sir James would do something very handsome for the family,” faltered Phoebe. “I do not know what it is, but I fancy Papa has sustained severe losses lately, besides what my brothers owe.”
“Well, so will I do something handsome,” said his lordship stoutly. A shade of uneasiness crept across his face. “When I am of age,” he added, in a rather flattened voice.
“Nonsense!” said Miss Grantham. “I do not wish to offend you, Phoebe, but I am not at all in favour of anything’s being done for your family. I see no reason why Adrian should be made to pay for the follies of your Papa and your brothers.”
This aspect of the case had not previously occurred to Miss Laxton, but upon reflection she found herself to be in complete agreement with it. “No, indeed! It would be very bad! I could not consent to such a thing. But what is to be done? My Papa will not care a fig for anything but the money!”
Lord Mablethorpe felt at this point that the discussion could better be continued in Miss Laxton’s absence. He said that it was too late to think of ways and means that evening, but that he should call in St James’s Square next day, and talk the matter over thoroughly. Miss Grantham, catching a significant glance thrown in her direction, rose instantly to the occasion, and said that this was a wise decision, and that she thought it was high time Phoebe was in bed. She then left the young couple to bid one another a fond good night, only returning to the saloon when she had seen Phoebe to her room, and put her into the hands of the abigail.
She found Lord Mablethorpe walking about the room, his brow clouded with thought. She shut the door, and came to the fire, seating herself by it, and saying in her sensible way: “Well; now, let us contrive a little! Do you fancy the engagement will not be received with pleasure by the Laxtons? I cannot credit it!”
He looked a little rueful. “I fear it, Deb. I have been setting a few inquiries afoot, and there seems to be no doubt that Laxton is pretty well done-up.”
“Very true. Those brothers, too, are as expensive a pair as you may meet! I was talking to Horley about them, and received a very ill account of them. Tell me, my dear boy: dc you feel yourself in honour bound to support Phoebe’s family?”
“No, I do not,” said his lordship bluntly. “They have all of them behaved damnably to her, and it is my intention to have nothing more to do with them, after we are married, than we must. I might do something for the younger girls, if Phoebe liked,” he added magniloquently.
“Famous! I was beginning to fear that I had served you an ill turn by casting you into Phoebe’s arms. But this is excellent!”
“Yes, but the thing is, Deb, that the Laxtons are not likely to consider my offer beside Filey’s. I could not, if I would, do what he might for the family. It means nothing to him: he has almost as much money as Max!”
“That may be, but if Phoebe refuses to marry Filey her parents will be only too glad to discover that she has another, and very eligible suitor at hand.”
Lord Mablethorpe looked rather sceptical, and took another turn about the room. After a pause, he said with some hesitation: “There is another thing, Deb. I did not tell you, but my mother has always had a notion that I might marry my cousin Arabella one day. She is a great heiress, you know. She won’t like it at all if she learns that I mean instead to marry Phoebe Laxton. Phoebe has no more than three or four thousand pounds coming to her, I dare say: not that that would signify to my mother once she has put the idea of my marrying Arabella out of her head: but she don’t like Lady Laxton, and I am very much afraid that she will not like the match at all. I don’t mean that she won’t come round when she knows Phoebe, but—well, it may take a little time, because once she takes a notion into her head. Well, I daresay you know what I mean! When I am of age, I can do as I please, but until then I don’t see how I am to offer for Phoebe, in the proper way, when my mother will very likely oppose the match. I was thinking of Max, too.”
“Pray, what has he to say to it?” demanded Miss Grantham.
“He is not my guardian, but he is one of my trustees, and the thing is that my mother usually attends to him, and although he is the best fellow in the world, I do feel that he will not at all approve of this, on account of the Laxtons being so done-up, you know. He will be afraid that I shall be bled by them, and it will be of no avail for me to assure him that I don’t mean to be, because he thinks I am just a boy, and can be imposed upon.”
Miss Grantham was silent for a moment. Privately, she thought that Lady Mablethorpe and Mr Ravenscar would be too relieved to hear that Adrian no longer meant to marry herself to raise any very serious objection to his proposed alliance with a young lady of good birth and unexceptionable manners; but she was by no means anxious that Mr Ravenscar should learn of Adrian’s escape from her toils before she had recovered her aunt’s bills, or adequately punished him for his odious conduct. She said, therefore: “You mean that the matter must be kept secret until you come of age?”
“I think it would be less disagreeable for Phoebe,” he said. “I might talk my mother over, but I dread the thought of what Phoebe might be made to undergo at Lady Laxton’s hands if I did not. I mean to offer for her with all the propriety in the world, but if I am refused permission to address her I shall marry her out of hand, even if it means running all the way to Gretna Green to do it!”
She smiled. “Bravo! Meanwhile, what is to be done? Am I to keep her with me, or do we send her to stay with her aunt?”
He stopped short in his tracks, an arrested expression in his face. “I had forgot her aunt! Deb, I believe I should journey into Wales to see her, and to beg for her support! What do you think?”