April Lady (19 page)

He got up, and began to pace about the room, kneading one fist into the palm of his other hand. "If it were only possible! I do not know but what, with this appointment and my prospects, which I do not scruple to say are excellent, I too should think myself justified— But it is to no purpose! Circumstances have placed us wholly in his power."

"What?" cried Letty. "No such thing! I am not in
anyone's
power, and I hope you are not either!"

"You are under age," he said gloomily.

"Oh, well, yes!" she conceded. "But if we were to be married he would be obliged to countenance it, because he would dislike excessively to make a scandal."

He was silent for a moment. When he did speak it was in a voice of deep mortification, and as though the words were forced from him. "In his power—because I am unable to support a wife.
That
is what renders my position so hopeless!"

"I would
try
not to be expensive," offered Letty.

He threw her a warm look, but said: "You are used to enjoy the elegancies of life. As my affairs now stand I cannot even offer you its comforts. To remove you from the protection of your brother only to place you in a situation where you would be obliged to practise the most stringent economy would be the action of a scoundrel! I must not—indeed, I
will
not do it!"

"No, for I don't think I could practise
stringent
economies," agreed Letty, considering the matter in an impartial spirit. "But we could live upon my expectations, couldn't we?"

"Borrow
on your expectations? No!—a thousand times no!" declared Mr. Allandale, with every evidence of repulsion.

"Well, it is what Nell's brother does," argued Letty. "I don't know precisely how he contrives to do it, but if
he
can I am persuaded I could too, for mine are much better than his, you know."

"Put it out of your mind!" begged Mr. Allandale, blanching visibly at the appalling vision of debt conjured up by her artless suggestion. "Nothing shall prevail upon me to take Lord Dysart for my model!"

"No, very true!!" she replied, recalling his lordship's unamiable behaviour. "I am sure he is the most ramshackle person—besides being excessively disagreeable! Only what is to be done, if you don't think my allowance sufficient? I have five hundred pounds a year, you know, and I need spend very little of it on my dresses, because I have a great many already." She stopped, and her eyes brightened. "Yes, and besides that I have suddenly had an excellent notion! I can very well buy
hundreds
of ells of silk, and muslin, and cambric—enough to set me up for
years,
I daresay—and tell all the mercers to send their bills to Giles!"

"Good God!" ejaculated Mr. Allandale, pausing in his perambulations to gaze upon her with starting eyes.

She perceived that her suggestion had not found favour. "You don't think that is what I should do? But consider, Jeremy! Even if he refused to pay—and I don't think that in the least likely—they couldn't dun me, because I should be in South America, and so all would be well."

It spoke volumes for the depth of Mr. Allandale's love that after the first stunned moment he recovered from an involuntary recoil, and realized that this ingenious solution to their difficulties arose not from depravity but from a vast and touching innocence. "That," he said gently, "would be dishonest, my dearest."

"Oh!" said Letty.

It was plain that she was unconvinced. Mr. Allandale was aware that it behoved him to bring her to a more proper frame of mind, but he felt, at this present, unequal to the task, and merely said: "Besides, if I were to marry you out of hand there can be little doubt that Cardross would discontinue your allowance."

She was quite incredulous. "No! He would not be so shabby!"   

"He warned me that your fortune remains in his hands until you attain the age of twenty-five. How much of its income you may enjoy is at his discretion. I could not mistake his meaning."

"Twenty-five?" gasped Letty. "Oh, of all the
infamous
things! Why, I shall be quite old! I declare I am excessively thankful that I can't remember my papa, for if he served me such a trick as that he must have been a most detestable man! You would think he
meant
Giles to chouse me out of my inheritance!"

"No, there is no question of such a thing as that," said Mr. Allandale painstakingly. "It is only—"

"Well, I don't mean to be worsted by either of them, and so I promise you!" Letty said briskly. "Depend upon it, I shall hit upon a way of bringing Giles about. But I must own, love, that it makes it very hard if you must sail so soon. Jeremy, pray do not!"

"You don't understand," he said. "I could not refuse such an adventitious appointment! You would not have me do so."

"Oh, no! Not refuse it, but could you not tell them that it is not perfectly convenient to you to go to Brazil so soon? Tell them that you will go in three months! I am persuaded we shall have come about by then."

This drew a slight, melancholy smile from him, but he shook his head. "No, indeed I could not do such a thing! Consider, dearest, how unwise in me it would be to offend my kind patron! I owe this advancement to Lord Roxwell, you know, and to give the least appearance of ingratitude—"

"I have been thinking about that," she interrupted. "I daresay he was anxious to oblige you, only the thing is that he has quite mistaken the matter."

"How so?" he demanded, looking bewildered. "He was good enough to say that he had my advancement very much to heart, certainly. I believe I told you that he held my father in great affection."

"Yes, you did, and it has given me a very good notion. You must go to him instantly, and tell him that you would prefer to be made ambassador!"

"Tell him that I would prefer to be made ambassador?" repeated Mr. Allandale, in a bemused voice.

"In a very civil way, of course," she urged, seeing that her notion was not having that success with him which it deserved. "You could say that now you have had time to consider the matter you feel that it would be better if you became an ambassador; or— But you will know just how to say it in an unexceptionable way!"

"No!" said Mr. Allandale, with a good deal of conviction. "I do not know! My dearest life, you don't know—you have not the least conception—! It will be many years before I can hope to be so elevated. As for asking Lord Roxwell— Good God!"

"Should you prefer it if I were to ask him?" enquired Letty. "I am not particularly acquainted with him, but Giles knows him, and we meet him for ever at parties."

Mr. Allandale sat down again beside her, and grasped both her hands. "Letty, promise me you will do no such thing!" he begged. "It is not to be thought of! Believe me, it would be quite disastrous!"

"Would it? Then I won't, of course, and I expect it will answer best for you to approach him, after all," said Letty sunnily. "The only thing is that perhaps you might not like to tell him that you would make an excellent ambassador, while for me there could be nothing easier."

Much moved, Mr. Allandale pressed several kisses on to her hands, ejaculating in a thickened voice: "So sweet! so innocent! Alas, no, my love! it cannot be! I must be content with what is offered to me—and, indeed, it is more than ever I expected!"

"Well, I am sure it is not more than you deserve," said Letty warmly. "However, if you believe it would be useless to apply to Lord Roxwell, I won't tease you. We must think of some other scheme."

She spoke with optimism, but Mr. Allandale sighed. "I wish we might! But my thoughts lead me only to the melancholy necessity of waiting. If your present allowance were secured to you I should be
tempted
indeed, though I trust I should find the strength to withstand the impulse of my heart. Situated as we both are—you dependent upon your brother's caprice, I with such charges upon my purse as I cannot but consider sacred—our case is hopeless.
One
of my sisters is on the point (I hope) of contracting an eligible marriage; my uncle has always promised to present Philip to a living, as soon as he shall have been inducted into Holy Orders, which, I trust, will be this year; but Edward is still at school, and Tom must be sent to join him in September. I could not reconcile it with my conscience, love, to leave my widowed parent to bear, without assistance, these heavy charges."

Letty agreed to this, but without enthusiasm. She ventured to say: "You don't feel that perhaps Tom would as lief not go to school?"

Mr. Allandale dismissed unhesitatingly a tentative suggestion which would have won for Letty her future brother-in-law's esteem and approval.

"Perhaps your uncle would pay for Tom?"

He shook his head. "I fear— You must know that he has himself a numerous progeny, and has, besides, been responsible for a part of Philip's education. Philip is his godson, but it would not be right to expect him to provide for Edward or Tom."

A depressed silence fell. Mr. Allandale broke it, saying with a praiseworthy attempt to speak cheerfully: "We must be patient. It will be very hard, but we shall have the future to look forward to. Cardross has said that if we are of the same two minds when I return from Brazil he will not then withhold his consent. I believe him to be a man of his word; and that thought, that hope, will help us to bear with fortitude our separation. I do not consider him unfeeling, and I trust he will not forbid us to correspond with each other."

"He may forbid it if he chooses, but I shall pay not the least heed!" declared Letty, her voice trembling. "Only I am not a good hand at letter-writing, and I don't
wish
to correspond with you! I wish to be with you! Oh, don't talk of our being separated, Jeremy! I can't bear it, and I won't bear it! Cardross must and
shall
continue to pay my allowance!"

He could not feel hopeful; nor did he think well of a scheme for Cardross's subjection which depended for its success on her ability to bring herself to the brink of a decline by refusing to let a morsel of food pass her lips. Letty then broke into a passion of weeping, and by the time he had soothed and petted her into a calmer state he was obliged to tear himself from her side. His haggard countenance, when he emerged from the drawing-room, did much to restore Selina's good opinion of him; and when she found her cousin still hiccupping on convulsive sobs she felt that matters were progressing just as they should. It now only remained for Letty to suffer abominable persecution at the hands of her cruel guardian.

"Well, I had as lief not be persecuted, I thank you!" said Letty crossly. "Besides, he is persecuting me!"

"Not enough!" declared Selina positively. "Do you think, if you threatened to run away, that he would lock you in an attic at the top of the house?"

"No, of course he wouldn't, you silly creature!"

"They do in general," argued Selina. "If only you could prevail upon him to, you could throw a note down from the window to me, and I would instantly deliver it to Mr. Allandale. He would feel himself bound to rescue you, and then you could fly to the border."

"That only happens in novels," said Letty scornfully. "I should like to know how Jeremy could possibly rescue me! Why, he could not even enter the house without knocking on the door, and what, pray, would you have him say to the porter?"

"I suppose there isn't a secret way into the house?" asked Selina, rather daunted.

"Of course not! You only find them in castles!"

"No, that is not true at all!" Selina cried triumphantly. "Because I have seen a secret way into quite a commonplace house! I don't precisely remember where it was, but I drove there when Mama took Fanny and me to stay with my uncle, in Somerset!"

"It's of no consequence
where
it is, because there are no secret doors in Grosvenor Square."

"No," agreed Selina regretfully. Another idea presented itself to her, but although her eyes brightened momentarily they clouded at the thought of Mr. Allandale gaining an entrance to Cardross House in the disguise of a sweep.

"And now I come to think of it," said Letty, clinching the matter, "the attics are all as full as they can hold with servants. I wish you will stop talking nonsense, like a goose!"

"It is not nonsense! You did not think it so, when we read that capital story about the girl who was imprisoned by her uncle, so that she should consent to wed his son—the one that had a villainous aspect, and two savage mastiffs, and—"

"Books!" cried Letty impatiently. "But this is
real!"

CHAPTER EIGHT

 
 
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Letty remained
in Bryanston Square all day; and great was Mrs. Thorne's delight to find her there when she returned from a protracted shopping expedition with Fanny. Silks and muslins for the making of Fanny's bride-clothes had been their object; and while the tour of the warehouses had been in the nature of a preliminary skirmish so much had been bought, and so many patterns had been brought home to be studied at leisure that little else was talked of during the remainder of Letty's visit. Mrs. Thorne did indeed notice that she was rather languid in spirit, but this circumstance she ascribed to pique, and paid no heed to it, beyond remarking, not very felicitously, that in spite of her three years' seniority she had never expected Fanny to go off before her cousin.