He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope [children's ebooks free online .TXT] 📗

Lady

Rowley, unable to repress the expression of the old regrets. ‘Of course

she is Lady Peterborough, mamma; what else should she be? though she

does not so sign herself.’ ‘We think,’ said the American peeress, ‘that

we shall be at Monkhams before the end of August, and Charles says that

you are to come just the same. There will be nobody else there, of

course, because of Lord Peterborough’s death.’ ‘I saw it in the paper,’

said Sir Marmaduke, ‘and quite forgot to mention it.’

 

That same evening there was a long family discussion about Nora’s

prospects. They were all together in the gloomy sitting-room at Gregg’s

Hotel, and Sir Marmaduke had not yielded. The ladies had begun to feel

that it would be well not to press him to yield. Practically he had

yielded. There was now no question of cursing and of so-called

disinheritance. Nora was to remain in England, of course, with the

intention of being married to Hugh Stanbury; and the difficulty

consisted in the need of an immediate home for her. It wanted now but

twelve days to that on which the family were to sail from Southampton,

and nothing had been settled. ‘If papa will allow me something ever so

small, and will trust me, I will live alone in lodgings,’ said Nora.

 

‘It is the maddest thing I ever heard,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

 

‘Who would take care of you, Nora?’ asked Lady Rowley.

 

‘And who would walk about with you?’ said Lucy.

 

‘I don’t see how it would be possible to live alone like that,’ said

Sophie.

 

‘Nobody would take care of me, and nobody would walk about with me, and

I could live alone very well,’ said Nora. ‘I don’t see why a young

woman is to be supposed to be so absolutely helpless as all that comes

to. Of course it won’t be very nice, but it need not be for long.’

 

‘Why not for long?’ asked Sir Marmaduke.

 

‘Not for very long,’ said Nora.

 

‘It does not seem to me,’ said Sir Marmaduke, after a considerable

pause, ‘that this gentleman himself is so particularly anxious for the

match. I have heard no day named, and no rational proposition made.’

 

‘Papa, that is unfair, most unfair and ungenerous.’

 

‘Nora,’ said her mother, ‘do not speak in that way to your father.’

 

‘Mamma, it is unfair. Papa accuses Mr Stanbury of being being lukewarm

and untrue—of not being in earnest.’

 

‘I would rather that he were not in earnest,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

 

‘Mr Stanbury is ready at any time,’ continued Nora. ‘He would have the

banns at once read, and marry me in three weeks if I would let him.’

 

‘Good gracious, Nora!’ exclaimed Lady Rowley.

 

‘But I have refused to name any day, or to make any arrangement,

because I did not wish to do so before papa had given his consent. That

is why things are in this way. If papa will but let me take a room till

I can go to Monkhams, I will have everything arranged from there. You

can trust Mr Glascock for that, and you can trust her.’

 

‘I suppose your papa will make you some allowance,’ said Lady Rowley.

 

‘She is entitled to nothing, as she has refused to go to her proper

home,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

 

The conversation, which had now become very disagreeable, was not

allowed to go any further. And it was well that it should be

interrupted. They all knew that Sir Marmaduke must be brought round by

degrees, and that both Nora and Lady Rowley had gone as far as was

prudent at present. But all trouble on this head was suddenly ended for

this evening by the entrance of the waiter with a telegram. It was

addressed to Lady Rowley, and she opened it with trembling hands as

ladies always do open telegrams. It was from Emily Trevelyan. ‘Louis is

much worse. Let somebody come to me. Hugh Stanbury would be the best.’

 

In a few minutes they were so much disturbed that no one quite knew

what should be done at once. Lady Rowley began by declaring that she

would go herself. Sir Marmaduke of course pointed out that this was

impossible, and suggested that he would send a lawyer. Nora professed

herself ready to start immediately on the journey, but was stopped by a

proposition from her sister Lucy that in that case Hugh Stanbury would

of course go with her. Lady Rowley asked whether Hugh would go, and

Nora asserted that he would go immediately as a matter of course. She

was sure he would go, let the people at the D. R. say what they might.

According to her there was always somebody at the call of the editor of

the D. R. to do the work of anybody else, when anybody else wanted to

go away. Sir Marmaduke shook his head, and was very uneasy. He still

thought that a lawyer would be best, feeling, no doubt, that if

Stanbury’s services were used on such an occasion, there must be an end

of all opposition to the marriage. But before half-an-hour was over

Stanbury was sent for. The boots of the hotel went off in a cab to the

office of the D. R. with a note from Lady Rowley. ‘Dear Mr Stanbury, We

have had a telegram from Emily, and want to see you, at once. Please

come. We shall sit up and wait for you till you do come, E. R.’

 

It was very distressing to them because, let the result be what it

might, it was all but impossible that Mrs Trevelyan should be with them

before they had sailed, and it was quite out of the question that they

should now postpone their journey. Were Stanbury to start by the

morning train on the following day, he could not reach Siena till the

afternoon of the fourth day; and let the result be what it might when

he arrived there, it would be out of the question that Emily Trevelyan

should come back quite at once, or that she should travel at the same

speed. Of course they might hear again by telegram, and also by letter;

but they could not see her, or have any hand in her plans. ‘If anything

were to happen, she might have come with us,’ said Lady Rowley.

 

‘It is out of the question,’ said Sir Marmaduke gloomily. ‘I could not

give up the places I have taken.’

 

‘A few days more would have done it.’

 

‘I don’t suppose she would wish to go,’ said Nora. ‘Of course she would

not take Louey there. Why should she? And then I don’t suppose he is so

ill as that.’

 

‘There is no saying,’ said Sir Marmaduke. It was very evident that,

whatever might be Sir Marmaduke’s opinion, he had no strongly developed

wish for his son-in-law’s recovery.

 

They all sat up waiting for Hugh Stanbury till eleven, twelve, one, and

two o’clock at night. The ‘boots’ had returned saying that Mr Stanbury

had not been at the office of the newspaper, but that, according to

information received, he certainly would be there that night. No other

address had been given to the man, and the note had therefore of

necessity been left at the office. Sir Marmaduke became very fretful,

and was evidently desirous of being liberated from his night watch. But

he could not go himself, and shewed his impatience by endeavouring to

send the others away. Lady Rowley replied for herself that she should

certainly remain in her corner on the sofa all night, if it were

necessary; and as she slept very soundly in her corner, her comfort was

not much impaired. Nora was pertinacious in refusing to go to bed. ‘I

should only go to my own room, papa, and remain there,’ she said. ‘Of

course I must speak to him before he goes.’ Sophie and Lucy considered

that they had as much right to sit up as Nora, and submitted to be

called geese and idiots by their father.

 

Sir Marmaduke had arisen with a snort from a short slumber, and had

just sworn that he and everybody else should go to bed, when there came

a ring at the front-door bell. The trusty boots had also remained up,

and in two minutes Hugh Stanbury was in the room. He had to make his

excuses before anything else could be said. When he reached the D. R.

office between ten and eleven, it was absolutely incumbent on him to

write a leading article before he left it. He had been in the

reporter’s gallery of the House all the evening, and he had come away

laden with his article. ‘It was certainly better that we should remain

up, than that the whole town should be disappointed,’ said Sir

Marmaduke, with something of a sneer.

 

‘It is so very, very good of you to come,’ said Nora. ‘Indeed it is,’

said Lady Rowley; ‘but we were quite sure you would come.’ Having

kissed and blessed him as her son-in-law, Lady Rowley was now prepared

to love him almost as well as though he had been Lord Peterborough.

 

‘Perhaps, Mr Stanbury, we had better shew you this telegram,’ said Sir

Marmaduke, who had been standing with the scrap of paper in his hand

since the ring of the bell had been heard. Hugh took the message and

read it. ‘I do not know what should have made my daughter mention your

name,’ continued Sir Marmaduke ‘but as she has done so, and as perhaps

the unfortunate invalid himself may have alluded to you, we thought it

best to send for you.’

 

‘No doubt it was best, Sir Marmaduke.’

 

‘We are so situated that I cannot go. It is absolutely necessary that

we should leave town for Southampton on Friday week. The ship sails on

Saturday.’

 

‘I will go as a matter of course,’ said Hugh. ‘I will start at once, at

any time. To tell the truth, when I got Lady Rowley’s note, I thought

that it was to be so. Trevelyan and I were very intimate at one time,

and it may be that he will receive me without displeasure.’

 

There was much to be discussed, and considerable difficulty in the

discussion. This was enhanced, too, by the feeling in the minds of all

of them that Hugh and Sir Marmaduke would not meet again probably for

many years. Were they to part now on terms of close affection, or were

they to part almost as strangers? Had Lucy and Sophie not persistently

remained up, Nora would have faced the difficulty, and taken the bull

by the horns, and asked her father to sanction her engagement in the

presence of her lover. But she could not do it before so many persons,

even though the persons were her own nearest relatives. And then there

arose another embarrassment. Sir Marmaduke, who had taught himself to

believe that Stanbury was so poor as hardly to have the price of a

dinner in his pocket although, in fact, our friend Hugh was probably

the richer man of the two, said something about defraying the cost of

the journey. ‘It is taken altogether on our behalf,’ said Sir

Marmaduke. Hugh became red in the face, looked angry, and muttered a

word or two about Trevelyan being the oldest friend he had in the world

‘even if there were nothing else.’ Sir Marmaduke felt ashamed of

himself without cause, indeed, for the offer was natural, said nothing

further about it; but appeared to be more stiff and ungainly than ever.

 

The Bradshaw was had out and consulted, and nearly half an hour was

spent in poring over that wondrous volume.