“But Papa was used to speak of you as his cousin!” she objected. He offered no comment; and after a short pause, she said: “Yes, and I know we meet somewhere, because I’ve seen your name on the family tree which is in the big Bible at home.”
“Only through two marriages,” he answered discouragingly.
“I see. You don’t wish to recognize us, do you? Then there isn’t the least occasion for me to explain our situation to you. I beg your pardon for having put you to the trouble of visiting me.”
At these words, the Marquis, who had had every intention of bringing the interview to a summary end, irrationally chose to prolong it. Whether he relented because Miss Merriville amused him, or because the novelty of having one of his rebuffs accepted without demur intrigued him remained undecided, even in his own mind. But however it may have been he laughed suddenly, and said, quizzing her: “Oh, so high! No, no, don’t hold up your nose at me: it don’t become you! I’ve no objection to recognizing you, as you put it: I won’t even repudiate cousinship — though I hold out no promise of lending you my aid in whatever project it is that you have in mind. What, by the way, do you hope I’ll do for you?”
She relaxed, and smiled gratefully at him. “I am very much obliged to you! It is quite a small thing: to introduce my sister into the ton!”
“To introduce your sister into the ton?” he repeated blankly.
“Yes, if you please. And perhaps I should warn you that you might have to introduce me too, unless I can persuade my sister that I truly don’t desire it. In general she is the most biddable girl alive, but in this instance she declares she won’t go to parties unless I do, which is excessively tiresome of her, but comes from her having such a loving disposition that — ”
He interrupted her without ceremony. “My good girl, are you seriously suggesting that you should make your come-out under my aegis? What you need is a matron to chaperon you, not a bachelor!”
“I know I do,” she agreed. “That was why it came as a severe disappointment to me to learn that you are a bachelor. But I’ve already thought how we might overcome that difficulty! Would you object to it if we pretended that Papa had left us to your guardianship? Not all of us, of course, because Harry has just come of age, and I am four-and-twenty, but the three younger ones?”
“I should — most emphatically!”
“But why?” she argued. “You wouldn’t be obliged to do any more for us than to sponsor Charis — and me, perhaps — into society! Naturally I shouldn’t expect you to interest yourself in anything else concerning us! In fact, I shouldn’t relish it above half if you did,” she added frankly.
“You need be under no apprehension! What you don’t appear to realize, ma’am, is that you wouldn’t find my sponsorship a passport to the Polite World!”
“How is this?” she demanded. “I had thought a Marquis must always be acceptable!”
“That, Miss Merriville, depends on the Marquis!”
“Oh!” she said, digesting this, “Papa said you were a — an out-and-out cock of the game. Does that mean that you are an improper person?”
“Sunk below reproach!” he responded promptly.
She broke into a chuckle. “Oh, humbug! I don’t believe it! Even poor Papa wasn’t as bad as that!”
“Even poor Papa…!” he said. He found his quizzing-glass, and raised it to one eye, studying her through it with the air of a man who had encountered a rare specimen.
Quite impervious to this scrutiny, she said: “No, though I believe he was shockingly wild before he met Mama — and I must own that to have run off with her, as he did, was not at all the thing! It has always seemed very odd to me that Mama should have consented, for she was of the first respectability, you know, and so very — so very good! However, I believe that people who are passionately in love frequently do the oddest things — and I have sometimes thought that she was very persuadable. Not that I knew her very well, because she died soon after Felix was born, but Charis is her image, and she is persuadable! And, of course, they were both so young! Only fancy! — Papa came of age just a week before I was born! I can’t imagine how he contrived to support a family, for his father cut him off without a groat, and I shouldn’t think he pursued any gainful occupation. But he abandoned all his rackety ways after he married Mama; and considering that they had caused my grandparents to feel the greatest anxiety and embarrassment I must say that I think it was wickedly unjust of them not to have welcomed Mama into the family!”
The Marquis preserved a tactful silence. His recollections of the late Mr Merriville, whom he had met not so very many years previously, hardly tallied with the picture conjured up of a reformed character.
“And, for my part,” continued Miss Merriville, “I think they were very well served for their unkindness when both my grandfather, and my Uncle James, who was the heir, were carried off by typhus within a day of each other! That was how Papa came into the property — and just in time for Harry to be born at Graynard! And after him, of course, Charis, and Jessamy, and Felix.” She broke off, seeing the Marquis blink, and smiled. “I know what you are thinking, and you are perfectly right! All of us but Harry have the most ridiculous names! I assure you, they are a great trial to us. Nothing would do for Mama, when I was born, but to saddle me with Frederica — after Papa, you know. Then there was Harry, because Mama was Harriet. And Papa chose my sister’s name, because he said she was the most graceful baby he had ever seen. Jessamy was named after his godfather; and Felix was a fancy of Mama’s — because we were such a happy family! Which, indeed, we were — until Mama died.” She paused again, but almost immediately resumed, giving her head a tiny shake, as though to cast off a bad memory, and saying, in a lighter tone: “So we had to make the best of our absurd names! And Jessamy and I exchanged vows never to call each other Jessie and Freddy, and never to permit the others to do so either.”
“And don’t they?”
“No — well, almost never! I must own that Felix does sometimes say Jessie, but only when Jessamy is on his high ropes; and in private Harry occasionally calls me Freddy — but not to torment me! And he never calls Jessamy Jessie, no matter how much Jessamy may have provoked him, because he is four years older, besides being the head of the family, and he would think it very shabby conduct to nettle Jessamy into a fight, when he knows he could drop him in a trice. Not but what Jessamy is full of pluck, Harry says, but — Oh, dear, how I am running on, and without saying anything to the purpose! Where was I?”
“I rather think you had reached the point of your mother’s death.”
“Oh, yes! Well — the effect of that was very dreadful. I believe — indeed, I know — that Papa was so shattered that they feared for his reason. I was too young to understand, but I remember that he was ill for a long time — or so it seemed to me — and when he recovered he wasn’t the same. In fact, he became quite a stranger, because he was hardly ever at home. He couldn’t bear it, without Mama. I daresay we shouldn’t have liked it at the time, but I have frequently thought that it would have been a very good thing if he had married again. I know it is improper in me to say so, but he was sadly unsteady, you know.”
“Well, yes,” admitted Alverstoke. “I do know. But did he leave you to fend for yourselves? I find that hard to believe!”
“No, no, of course he didn’t! My Aunt Seraphina came to live with us — she is Mama’s unmarried sister — and she has been with us ever since Mama died!”