A Civil Contract

It had not occurred to him that she might be pregnant, and surprise held him silent, just staring at her. She said defensively: “Well,  it was only what was to be expected, after all! I mean I’m breeding, you know.”

His lips quivered. “Yes, I understand that, but — I beg your pardon, but really, Jenny — !”

“I don’t see what there is to laugh at,” she said, eyeing him in resentful bewilderment. “I thought you would be glad!”

“Yes, yes, of course I am! But to fling it at me like that, and at such a moment — !” His voice shook, but he controlled it, saying contritely: “I’m sorry — don’t look so affronted! I won’t laugh at you any more! But what’s to be done? You goose, to have come on such an expedition as this! How the devil am I to get you home?”

She sat up, replying with something like her usual briskness: “You’ll get me home when the show’s over, and not before, thank you! I’m better now. I told you there was no need for you to be in a worry, and nor there is. It’s no more than natural I should have sick turns, though I must own it quite takes the edge off one’s pleasure!”

He gave a tiny gasp. “I imagine it must!” he said unsteadily. “Poor, poor Jenny!”

“Yes, I can see you think it’s highly diverting!” she retorted.

“No, I don’t — it’s you I think highly diverting, not your sickness, I promise you! Are you sure you are well enough to remain here? I wish you had told me before ever we arranged this party!”

“Fiddle!” she said, getting up, and straightening her shoulders. “I’m in a capital way now. For goodness’ sake, don’t get into a taking, Adam, for there’s nothing wrong with me, and if there’s one thing I can’t bear it’s setting people in a bustle, and having them fidgeting round me, as if I was going into a decline! And mind, now! not a word to Papa!”

“But, my dear — !” he exclaimed, considerably startled. “Surely you don’t mean to keep it secret from him?”

“That’s just what I do mean to do, while I’m able. I wouldn’t have told you either, if I hadn’t been obliged to, because it’s early days yet, and no sense in boasting of what might not come to pass after all. Now, Adam, you don’t know Papa as I do, so you’ll be pleased to do as I bid you! The instant he knows I’m in the family way he’ll fly into one of his grand fusses, wanting to keep me in cotton, let alone bringing in half the doctors in London to drive me crazy! You may ask Martha, if you don’t believe me! She’ll tell you the same, and that I’ll do better without being cossetted, what’s more!”

“Oh, does Martha know?” he asked, rather relieved.

“Well, of course she does! Now, if you’ll pour me out a drop more of your cordial, I shall be as right as a trivet again, and well go back to watch the rest of the show. And don’t think I shall go off in a swoon, or anything of that kind, for I shan’t, and so I promise you!”

He was obliged to fall in with these plans, though with considerable misgiving. They rejoined the rest of the party just in time to see the Tsar’s procession pass, and to learn that not even the presence in his carriage of the King of Prussia had deterred certain persons in the crowd from hissing the Prince Regent. If their absence had been noticed, no one commented on it. The show being at an end, thoughts turned towards nuncheon. Adam kept a watchful eye on Jenny, but although she ate nothing but a morsel of capon, and two spoonfuls of jelly, she showed no signs of succumbing again to nausea. The fear, however, that the festivities might prove too much for her remained with him, and although he continued to talk to his guests his brain was occupied in trying to decide what to do if she should be taken ill. It was not until he handed her out of the carriage, in Grosvenor Street, that his mind returned to his conversation with Julia, and even then it did not engross his thoughts. It was no more forgotten than a bruise which gave pain whenever it was touched, but Jenny’s pregnancy was a matter of greater importance, because she was his wife, and he was responsible for her well-being.

He was uneasily aware of having failed to respond to her announcement with the delight she had expected him to feel. Though she had immediately concealed it under a more than ordinarily matter-of-fact manner, he thought he had seen a look of chagrin in her face. He was sorry for it, but try as he would he was unable to conjure up any more fervent emotion than a detached feeling that an heir to his name would be desirable. He was more concerned for Jenny, who was obviously enduring a good deal of discomfort. She never mentioned the matter, except to reply to enquiry that she was very well, and to one accustomed to the Dowager’s demands for sympathy over the most trifling disorders this stoicism appeared to him far more admirable and unusual than, in fact, it was. He wanted her to consult a doctor, but she would not. “If you mean I should send for Dr Wrangle, who is the only doctor I’m acquainted with, I won’t do it! For one thing, he’s an old woman, and for another, he’d tell Papa within the hour, because he’d be afraid for his life not to. And if you mean I should see an accoucheur, there’s time and to spare for that, for he couldn’t advise me better than Martha, and very likely not as well. So just you forget all about it, my dear, or you’ll make me sorry I ever told you!”

“That’s asking too much of me. Have I no part in this?”

She gave a sudden chuckle. “To be sure you have, but you’ve played it, and the rest’s my business!”

“Jenny, this want of delicacy in you puts me to the blush!”

“Well, but — Oh, you’re laughing at me! Now, Adam, do but leave me to manage for myself! I promise you I’ll do just as I ought.”

“But are you doing just as you ought? All this junketing about the town with Lydia — ! Tell me the truth: wouldn’t it be best to send her back to Bath? She has seen all the lions, after all!”

“Yes, I can see what you’d have me do!” she retorted. “Lie on a sofa all day, with that nasty vinaigrette which Mrs Quarley-Bix gave me in my hand!”

“No, indeed! but I do wonder if I ought not to take you out of town while you are feeling so poorly. Cheltenham, perhaps, or Worthing, or — ”

“Oh, do you?” she interrupted. “Well, I’m sure I’m very much obliged to you, my lord, but I’ve no fancy for any such place! What a notion to take into your head, with the cards sent out already for our own assembly, and the party at Carlton House, not to mention the Thanksgiving at St Paul’s — ”

“Good God, we’re not going to that, are we?” he exclaimed.

“Well, we are if Brough can procure tickets for us, which he says he can easily do, through my Lord Adversane, I collect. Now, don’t put on that Friday-face, Adam! I’m as eager as Lydia is to go! As for sending her back to Bath before the Grand Spectacle in the Parks, I won’t hear of it! What with a balloon ascent in the Green Park, and the battle of Trafalgar to be fought on the Serpentine in the evening, let alone the Temple of Concord to see, and the Chinese Pagoda, and goodness only knows what more besides, it would pretty well break her heart to be obliged to miss it!”

“Jenny, if you imagine that I am so complaisant as to permit you to kill yourself, trudging all over the Parks to inspect a collection of gimcrackery — ”

“No, it’s you that will do that, my lord!” she said, with another of her sudden chuckles. “Or Brough, more likely. I shall see all I want to from the carriage, and so I promise you!” She hesitated, and then said: “Lydia is to go back to Bath as soon as that’s over, and I should like it if you would take me down to Fontley. To — to stay, I mean.”

“Of course I’ll take you there,” he replied. “To Holkham too, if you should feel able for it. I don’t think you’d care for Lincolnshire during the winter months, so — ”

“If I gave you my word not to meddle — change anything — any more than if I was a visitor — ?”

He stared at her, so much shocked by these halting words that for a moment he could think of nothing to say. He had been glad to escape to Fontley from the stifling luxury of Lynton House, but he had never acknowledged to himself that he did not want to see Jenny installed there. It was true, however, and she knew it; and the humble note in her voice when she uttered her request, the look that told him she; was afraid of a rebuff, shamed him more than any spoken reproach. He thought, in horror: I take everything, and give nothing.

“I know you don’t wish me to be there, but I shouldn’t tease you,” she said simply.

He pulled himself together, forcing into his voice a lightness he was far from feeling. “Are you trying to give me my own again, for having laughed at you? What if I tell you that of course I don’t wish for you, and think myself much more comfortable without you? That would make you look no-how, wouldn’t it?”

She smiled, but doubtfully. “I do make you comfortable, don’t I?”

“No not a bit! Now, be serious, Jenny! Is that really what you would like to do? You don’t say it because you