I should naturally have had nothing more to do with him. I suppose,' mused Miss Appleyard, 'a man in love, if he is really in love, doesn't quite know what he's doing. I suppose one ought to make allowances. But, oh! when I think of it--'
And then Grindley junior's guardian angel must surely have slipped into the room, for Miss Appleyard, irritated beyond endurance at the philosophical indifference of the bust of William Shakespeare, turned away from it, and as she did so, caught sight of herself in the looking-glass. Miss Appleyard approached the glass a little nearer. A woman's hair is never quite as it should be. Miss Appleyard, standing before the glass, began, she knew not why, to find reasons excusing Grindley junior. After all, was not forgiveness an excellent thing in woman? None of us are quite perfect. The guardian angel of Grindley junior seized the opportunity.
That evening Solomon Appleyard sat upright in his chair, feeling confused. So far as he could understand it, a certain young man, a grocer's assistant, but not a grocer's assistant--but that, of course, was not his fault, his father being an old brute--had behaved most abominably; but not, on reflection, as badly as he might have done, and had acted on the whole very honourably, taking into consideration the fact that one supposed he could hardly help it. Helvetia was, of course, very indignant with him, but on the other hand, did not quite see what else she could have done, she being not at all sure whether she really cared for him or whether she didn't; that everything had been quite proper and would not have happened if she had known it; that everything was her fault, except most things, which weren't; but that of the two she blamed herself entirely, seeing that she could not have guessed anything of the kind. And did he, Solomon Appleyard, think that she ought to be very angry and never marry anybody else, or was she justified in overlooking it and engaging herself to the only man she felt she could ever love?
'You mustn't think, Dad, that I meant to deceive you. I should have told you at the beginning--you know I would--if it hadn't all happened so suddenly.'
'Let me see,' said Solomon Appleyard, 'did you tell me his name, or didn't you?'
'Nathaniel,' said Miss Appleyard. 'Didn't I mention it?'
'Don't happen to know his surname, do you,' inquired her father.
'Grindley,' explained Miss Appleyard--'the son of Grindley, the Sauce man.'
Miss Appleyard experienced one of the surprises of her life. Never before to her recollection had her father thwarted a single wish of her life. A widower for the last twelve years, his chief delight had been to humour her. His voice, as he passionately swore that never with his consent should his daughter marry the son of Hezekiah Grindley, sounded strange to her. Pleadings, even tears, for the first time in her life proved fruitless.
Here was a pretty kettle of fish! That Grindley junior should defy his own parent, risk possibly the loss of his inheritance, had seemed to both a not improper proceeding. When Nathaniel George had said with fine enthusiasm: 'Let him keep his money if he will; I'll make my own way; there isn't enough money in the world to pay for losing you!' Janet Helvetia, though she had expressed disapproval of such unfilial attitude, had in secret sympathised. But for her to disregard the wishes of her own doting father was not to be thought of. What was to be done?
Perhaps one Peter Hope, residing in Gough Square hard by, might help young folks in sore dilemma with wise counsel. Peter Hope, editor and part proprietor of Good Humour, one penny weekly, was much esteemed by Solomon Appleyard, printer and publisher of aforesaid paper.
'A good fellow, old Hope,' Solomon would often impress upon his managing clerk. 'Don't worry him more than you can help; things will improve. We can trust him.'
Peter Hope sat at his desk, facing Miss Appleyard. Grindley junior sat on the cushioned seat beneath the middle window. Good Humour's sub-editor stood before the fire, her hands behind her back.
The case appeared to Peter Hope to be one of exceeding difficulty.
'Of course,' explained Miss Appleyard, 'I shall never marry without my father's consent.'
Peter Hope thought the resolution most proper.
'On the other hand,' continued Miss Appleyard, 'nothing shall induce me to marry a man I do not love.' Miss Appleyard thought the probabilities were that she would end by becoming a female missionary.
Peter Hope's experience had led him to the conclusion that young people sometimes changed their mind.
The opinion of the House, clearly though silently expressed, was that Peter Hope's experience, as regarded this particular case, counted for nothing.
'I shall go straight to the Governor,' explained Grindley junior, 'and tell him that I consider myself engaged for life to Miss Appleyard. I know what will happen--I know the sort of idea he has got into his head. He will disown me, and I shall go off to Africa.'
Peter Hope was unable to see how Grindley junior's disappearance into the wilds of Africa was going to assist the matter under discussion.
Grindley junior's view was that the wilds of Africa would afford a fitting background to the passing away of a blighted existence.
Peter Hope had a suspicion that Grindley junior had for the moment parted company with that sweet reasonableness that otherwise, so Peter Hope felt sure, was Grindley junior's guiding star.
'I mean it, sir,' reasserted Grindley junior. 'I am--' Grindley junior was about to add 'well educated'; but divining that education was a topic not pleasing at the moment to the ears of Helvetia Appleyard, had tact enough to substitute 'not a fool. I can earn my own living; and I should like to get away.'
'It seems to me--' said the sub-editor.
'Now, Tommy--I mean Jane,' warned her Peter Hope. He always called her Jane in company, unless he was excited. 'I know what you are going to say. I won't have it.'
'I was only going to say--' urged the sub-editor in tone of one suffering injustice.
'I quite know what you were going to say,' retorted Peter hotly. 'I can see it by your chin. You are going to take their part--and suggest their acting undutifully towards their parents.'
'I wasn't,' returned the sub-editor. 'I was only--'
'You were,' persisted Peter. 'I ought not to have allowed you to be present. I might have known you would interfere.'
'--going to say we are in want of some help in the office. You know we are. And that if Mr. Grindley would be content with a small salary--'
'Small salary be hanged!' snarled Peter.
'--there would be no need for his going to Africa.'
'And how would that help us?' demanded Peter. 'Even if the boy were so--so headstrong, so unfilial as to defy his father, who has worked for him all these years, how would that remove the obstacle of Mr. Appleyard's refusal?'
'Why, don't you see--' explained the sub-editor.
'No, I don't,' snapped Peter.
'If, on his declaring to his father that nothing will ever induce him to marry any other woman but Miss Appleyard, his father disowns him, as he thinks it likely--'
'A dead cert!' was Grindley junior's conviction.
'Very well; he is no longer old Grindley's son, and what possible objection can Mr. Appleyard have to him then?'
Peter Hope arose and expounded at length and in suitable language the folly and uselessness of the scheme.
But what chance had ever the wisdom of Age against the enthusiasm of Youth, reaching for its object. Poor Peter, expostulating, was swept into the conspiracy. Grindley junior the next morning stood before his father in the private office in High Holborn.
'I am sorry, sir,' said Grindley junior, 'if I have proved a disappointment to you.'
'Damn your sympathy!' said Grindley senior. 'Keep it till you are asked for it.'
'I hope we part friends, sir,' said Grindley junior, holding out his hand.
'Why do you irate me?' asked Grindley senior. 'I have thought of nothing but you these five-and-twenty years.'
'I don't, sir,' answered Grindley junior. 'I can't say I love you. It did not seem to me you--you wanted it. But I like you, sir, and I respect you. And--and I'm sorry to have to hurt you, sir.'
'And you are determined to give up all your prospects, all the money, for the sake of this--this girl?'
