In the evening Mr. Henderson came. Molly had been very curious to see him; and when she saw him she was not sure whether she liked him or not. He was handsome, without being conceited; gentlemanly, without being foolishly fine. He talked easily, and never said a silly thing. He was perfectly well-appointed, yet never seemed to have given a thought to his dress. He was good-tempered and kind; not without some of the cheerful flippancy of repartee which belonged to his age and profession, and which his age and profession are apt to take for wit. But he wanted something in Molly’s eyes—at any rate, in this first interview, and in her heart of hearts she thought him rather commonplace. But of course she said nothing of this to Cynthia, who was evidently as happy as she could be. Mrs. Gibson, too, was in the seventh heaven of ecstasy, and spoke but little; but what she did say, expressed the highest sentiments in the finest language. Mr. Gibson was not with them for long, but while he was there he was evidently studying the unconscious Mr. Henderson with his dark penetrating eyes. Mr. Henderson behaved exactly as he ought to have done to everybody: respectful to Mr. Gibson, deferential to Mrs. Gibson, friendly to Molly, devoted to Cynthia.
The next time Mr. Gibson found Molly alone, he began,—‘Well! and how do you like the new relation that is to be?’
‘It’s difficult to say. I think he’s very nice in all his bits, but—rather dull on the whole.’
‘I think him perfection,’ said Mr. Gibson, to Molly’s surprise; but in an instant afterwards she saw that he had been speaking ironically. He went on. ‘I don’t wonder she preferred him to Roger Hamley. Such scents! such gloves! And then his hair and his cravat!’
‘Now, papa, you’re not fair. He’s a great deal more than that. One could see that he had very good feeling; and he’s very handsome, and very much attached to her.’
‘So was Roger. However, I must confess I shall be only too glad to have her married. She’s a girl who’ll always have some love affair on hand, and will always be apt to slip through a man’s fingers if he doesn’t look sharp; as I was saying to Roger—’
‘You have seen him, then, since he was here?’
‘Met him in the street.’
‘How was he?’
‘I don’t suppose he’d been going through the pleasantest thing in the world; but he’ll get over it before long. He spoke with sense and resignation, and didn’t say much about it; but one could see that he was feeling it pretty sharply. He’s had three months to think it over, remember. The squire, I should guess, is showing more indignation. He is boiling over, that any one should reject his son. The enormity of the sin never seems to have been apparent to him till now, when he sees how Roger is affected by it. Indeed, with the exception of myself, I don’t know one reasonable father; eh, Molly?’
Whatever else Mr. Henderson might be, he was an impatient lover; he wanted to marry Cynthia directly—next week—the week after. At any rate before the long vacation, so that they could go abroad at once. Trousseaux, and preliminary ceremonies, he gave to the winds. Mr. Gibson, generous as usual, called Cynthia aside a morning or two after her engagement, and put a hundred-pound note into her hands.
‘There! that’s to pay your expenses to Russia and back. I hope you’ll find your pupils obedient.’
To his surprise, and rather to his discomfiture, Cynthia threw her arms round his neck and kissed him.
‘You are the kindest person I know,’ said she; ‘and I don’t know how to thank you in words.’
‘If you tumble my shirt-collars again in that way, I’ll charge you for the washing. Just now, too, when I’m trying so hard to be trim and elegant, like your Mr. Henderson.’
‘But you do like him, don’t you?’ said Cynthia, pleadingly. ‘He does so like you.’
‘Of course. We’re all angels just now, and you’re an archangel. I hope he’ll wear as well as Roger.’
Cynthia looked grave. ‘That was a very silly affair,’ she said. ‘We were two as unsuitable people—’
‘It has ended, and that’s enough. Besides, I’ve no more time to waste; and there’s your smart young man coming here in all haste.’
Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick sent all manner of congratulations; and Mrs. Kirkpatrick, in a private letter, assured Mrs. Gibson that her ill-timed confidence about Roger should be considered as quite private. For as soon as Mr. Henderson had made his appearance in Hollingford, she had written a second letter, entreating them not to allude to anything she might have said in her first; which she said was written in such excitement on discovering the real state of her daughter’s affections, that she had hardly known what she said, and had exaggerated some things, and misunderstood others: all that she did know now was, that Mr. Henderson had just proposed to Cynthia, and was accepted, and that they were as happy as the day was long, and (‘excuse the vanity of a mother’) made a most lovely couple. So Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick wrote back an equally agreeable letter, praising Mr. Henderson, admiring Cynthia, and generally congratulatory; insisting into the bargain that the marriage should take place from their house in Hyde Park Street, and that Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and Molly should all come up and pay them a visit. There was a little postscript at the end. ‘Surely you do not mean the famous traveller, Hamley, about whose discoveries all our scientific men are so much excited. You speak of him as a young Hamley, who went to Africa. Answer this question, pray, for Helen is most anxious to know.’ This PS. being in Helen’s handwriting. In her exultation at the general success of everything, and desire for sympathy, Mrs. Gibson read parts of this letter to Molly; the postscript among the rest. It made a deeper impression on Molly than even the proposed kindness of the visit to London.
There were some family consultations; but the end of them all was that the Kirkpatrick invitation was accepted. There were many small reasons for this, which were openly acknowledged, but there was one general and unspoken wish to have the ceremony performed out of the immediate neighbourhood of the two men whom Cynthia had previously rejected; that was the word now to be applied to her treatment of them. So Molly was ordered and enjoined and entreated to become strong as soon as possible, in order that her health might not prevent her attending the marriage; Mr. Gibson himself, though he thought it his duty to damp the excellent anticipations of his wife and her daughter, being not at all averse to the prospect of going to London, and seeing half-a-dozen old friends, and many scientific exhibitions, independently of the very fair amount of liking which he had for his host, Mr. Kirkpatrick himself.
CHAPTER 57
Bridal Visits and Adieux
The whole town of Hollingford came to congratulate and inquire into particulars. Some indeed—Mrs. Goodenough at the head of this class of malcontents—thought that they were defrauded of their right to a fine show by Cynthia’s being married in London. Even Lady Cumnor was moved into action. She, who had hardly ever paid calls ‘out of her own sphere,’ who had only once been to see ‘Clare’ in her own house—she came to congratulate after her fashion. Maria had only just time to run up into the drawing-room one morning, and say—