“We are relations how, eh … in a way. My sister married to your stepfather.”
“Well, a connection, shall we say.”
“We shall meet often. That I look forward to with great pleasure.”
I was sorry when the dance came to an end. It had been so comfortably easy to dance with him. And when he returned me to my seat I was delighted to see Pedrek there.
Jean Pascal stayed and chatted with us and Pedrek remarked that he was late in arriving because his train had been delayed.
“Better late than never,” commented Morwenna, “and I believe Rebecca has left the supper dance free. I advised her to because I knew you would want it.”
“How is it going?” Pedrek asked me.
“As well as can be expected.”
“That sounds like a sick patient.”
“Well, I always felt it would be touch and go … According to these gruesome accounts I had from your mother and Aunt Helena, these occasions can be fraught with anxieties. Will this man or that man ask me to dance? Will anybody ask me? I am going to be a failure. The wallflower of the season.”
“That could never happen to you.”
“Perhaps not in my stepfather’s house where it would be a breach of good manners for no one to ask me. So far I have got through with slightly mutilated toes but my pride intact.”
One could be easy and frank with Pedrek. But then we had been friends from babyhood; and the most enjoyable dance of all was the supper dance which I shared with him.
Not that he could dance well. He was no Jean Pascal, but he was Pedrek, my dear friend with whom I felt fully at ease.
“It is long since I have seen you,” he said. “It’s not always going to be like that.”
“What are your plans, Pedrek?”
“I’m starting next month at a Mining Engineering College near St. Austell. Pencarron Mine will belong to me one day. My grandfather thinks I should take the course. The college is one of the finest in the South West.”
“Well, that’s good. I am sure your grandparents are delighted. You won’t be far away from them.”
“And I shall be there for two years. It will be extensive study, but when I emerge I should be ready to take over the mine and, as my grandfather says, with a full knowledge of modern improvements. I’ll tell you more about it over supper. And, Rebecca, let’s find a table for two. I don’t want anyone joining us.”
“It sounds intriguing.”
“I hope you’ll find it so. I’m sorry … I think I went the wrong way then.”
“You did. Madame Perrotte would despair of you.”
“I noticed the graceful movements of the Frenchman.”
“He’s the perfect dancer.”
“Few possess his talents.”
“You sound envious. Surely you know there is more to life than being able to dance well?”
“I breathe again.”
“Oh, Pedrek, what’s come over you? You’re unlike yourself tonight.”
“A change for the better or worse?”
I hesitated, then I said: “I’ll tell you over supper. Look. They are going in now. Do you think we ought to look after your mother and Aunt Helena?”
“They can look after themselves. Besides, I suppose they will be with other chaperones.”
“I see they have joined my stepfather and his wife.”
“Come on. We’ll find a table for two.”
We found it—slightly shaded by a pot of ferns.
“This looks inviting,” said Pedrek. “You sit down and I will go and get the food.”
He returned with the salmon I had seen being delivered that morning. On each of the tables was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. We sat down opposite each other.
“I must say your stepfather knows how to manage these affairs in style.”
“It is all part of the business of being an ambitious member of Parliament.”
“I thought that was done by distinguishing oneself in Parliament.”
“And keeping up appearances outside … knowing the right people … pulling the right strings and keeping in the public eye.”
“That can sometimes be disastrous.”
“I mean keeping in a favorable light.”
“That’s different. But enough of politics. I don’t ever intend to take part in them. Does that please you?”
“Do you mean does it please me that you don’t intend to?”
“I mean exactly that.”
“I don’t think you’d make a politician, Pedrek. You’re too honest …”
He raised his eyebrows and I went on: “I mean that you are too straightforward. Politicians always have to think of what is going to please or displease the voters. Uncle Peter was always saying that. He would have made a good politician. We were all fond of him but he was a manipulator … not only of things but of people. Look how he made Martin Hume. I don’t think a man should have to be made. He should do it by his own efforts.”
“You are looking for perfection in a less than perfect world. But enough of politicians. I want to talk about myself … and you.”
“Well, go ahead.”
“We’ve always been friends,” he said slowly. “Isn’t it wonderful that we were both born in extraordinary circumstances … both of us seeing the light of day in the Australian goldfields? Don’t you think that makes us special friends?”
“Yes, but we know that, Pedrek. What was it you wanted to tell me?”
“I shall not be able to marry for two years … not until I finish with the college really. How do you feel about that?”
“What should I feel about your marriage?”
“The utmost interest because I want it to be yours as well.”
I laughed with pleasure. “For the moment, Pedrek, I thought you were going to tell me that you had fallen victim to some alluring siren.”
“I have been in the coils of an irresistible siren ever since I was born.”
“Oh Pedrek, you are talking of me. This is so sudden.”
“Don’t joke about it, Rebecca. I am very serious. For me there is only one siren. I always knew you would be the one. To me it was a foregone conclusion that one day we should be together … always.”
“You have never consulted me on this important matter before.”
“I didn’t think it was the time; and I thought it was something between us … something you knew as well as I did. That it was … inevitable.”
“I don’t think I thought of it as inevitable.”
“Well, it is.”
“So this is a proposal?”
“Of a sort.”
“What do you mean, ‘of a sort’? Is it or isn’t it?”
“I’m asking you to become engaged to me.”
I smiled at him and touched his hand across the table. “I’m so proud of myself,” I said. “It is not many girls who get a proposal the instant they are launched into society.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I haven’t finished yet. I was going to say get a proposal from Pedrek Cartwright. That’s what makes it so wonderful … because it’s you, Pedrek.”
“This is the happiest night of my life,” he said.
“Of mine, too. Won’t they be pleased?”
“My mother will. I am not so sure of your stepfather.” He was frowning.
“What is it, Pedrek?” I asked.
“He has planned all this for you because he wants you to make a grand marriage.”
“I am going to make a grand marriage in exactly two years from now.”
“Let’s be sensible, Rebecca. It’s not what he would call a grand marriage. A mining engineer with a mine in remote Cornwall.”
“It’s a very successful mine. In any case I wouldn’t care if it was an old scat bal, as they call a useless old mine down there, if you went with it.”
“Oh, Rebecca, it’s going to be wonderful … the two of us … I can’t wait. You make me want to abandon the idea of going to college. I could go into my father’s office and we’d be married right away.”