'Then this is all the better! Do you remember saying you despaired of a Petruchio?'
'It is on the Petruchio principle that he takes her, and avowedly. None but Katharina was ever so wooed or so won!'
'That is very much to her honour.'
'If she realizes his being in earnest. She would make one doubt whether she has any earnest. Yesterday evening she so treated, the subject that I was on the point of saying, 'Reply not to me with a fool-born jest.' And how do you think she answered my father, when he asked her if she knew what she undertook? As my namesake said, 'I shall wash all day and ride out on the great dog at night.'
'Was not that a sort of shyness?'
'I would fain hope so. If I had ever seen anything like deep earnest feeling I should be satisfied. Yet Percy declares, I trust he may be right, that she has the very strongest affections, and much tenderness of character. He says her nature came straight from the tropics, and must not be judged by sober English rules.'
'If you had seen her distress about the child at the lodge!'
'Ah! he said those tears settled the matter, and showed him that she had the woman's heart as well as the candour that would conquer her waywardness. It sounds a little too like a lover's self- justification.'
'Do you think so?' said Violet. 'You do not know what she is with the dumb boy, and with Johnnie.'
'I was just going to have instanced her neglect of Johnnie.'
'I assure you,' cried Violet, eagerly, 'that is only because she does not like me. You cannot think how fond she is of him. When I am out of the way she goes to the nursery and pets him till Sarah is almost jealous of his fondness for her.'
'I have no patience with her,' exclaimed John.
'I thought you would have been glad.'
'I do not like Percy to make a mistake, and get his feelings trifled with. He deserves a wife like himself.'
'Did you hear of Arthur's advice to him?'
'To kill the cat on the wedding-day. That might answer if it were to be at once; but it is a cat with nine lives, and I do not think she will bear to have it killed before the wedding-day.'
'Then it is not to be soon?'
'No, my father thinks her not fit for a poor man's wife, and cannot give her more than L5000, so they must wait till they can begin on an income equal to yours.'
'And I suppose that will be when he gets some appointment.'
'And there is the Worthbourne estate as a provision for the future, so that there is no imprudence. For my part, I regret the delay; Theodora would shine if she had to rough it, provided always she was truly attached to her husband.'
'She would bear poverty beautifully.'
'But it is not a thing to advise. I am accused already of being romantic and imprudent, yet I would urge it on my father if I saw them desirous to hasten it. I do not understand them, and perhaps I am unreasonable. I do not like his happiness to be in such perverse hands, yet I am uneasy at the delay. It suits my aunt's predictions, and they are far too apt to come true. I feel them like a spell. She always foretold that Helen and I should never marry. And it cannot be denied that she has great insight into character, so that I am alarmed at her declaring this will not come to good. If not, I have no hope for Theodora! She will either be hard and unfeminine, or turn to worldliness, and be such another as my aunt. She has it in her.'
'You are taking to horrid predictions yourself.'
'Well, I acknowledge her capabilities, but there has been woful mismanagement, and my father feels it.'
'I was surprised at his consenting so readily.'
'He has once been too much grieved to be led to act against his own judgment again. He thinks very highly of Percy, and is glad Theodora should be in safe keeping; she was so wilful this last season in London as to make him very uneasy.'
Mr. Fotheringham came in, and Violet was going, but was claimed for some more work upon the Crusaders, and told that Arthur was gone out to inspect his gray.
Arthur found the weather better than it appeared from indoors, and strolled into the park to indulge in a cigar. Ere long he perceived the brown waterproof cloak, and throwing away the end of his cigar, called out, 'Halloa! a solitary ramble. Have you given Earl Percy the slip?'
'You do not expect him to be always philandering after me?'
'There's a popular delusion with regard to lovers.'
'We are not such ninnies.'
'But seriously, Theodora, what can induce Fotheringham to have you?'
'I expected you to ask what induced me to have him.'
'That in its own time! Tell me, first, why he takes you.'
'The same reason that you took Violet.'
'As if you and Violet were to be named together!'
'Or you and Percy!'
They laughed, and Theodora then spoke with deep feeling. 'It does surprise me, Arthur, but it is the more pleasure. He has known me all my life, and sees there is less humbug in me than in other women. He knows I have a heart.'
'That scientific discovery is his reason. Now for yours.'
'Because he understands me.'
'So your partnership is founded on a stock of mutual understanding! I devoutly hope it is; for my notion is that Percy will stand no nonsense.'
'Of course not.'
'It remains to be proved how you will like that.'
'I am not given to nonsense.'
Arthur whistled.
'That means that I will not yield when I am not convinced.'
'And he will make you.'
'He will never be unreasonable,' exclaimed Theodora.
'It does not follow that you will not.'
'That is unjust. I yield where duty, good sense, or affection make it needful.'
'Oho! Affection! That is like other people. Now I see some hope of you.'
'Did you think I would have had him without it?'
'Certainly, it is the only explanation. You will not find being wife to a scrub of an attache the same thing as being Miss Martindale.'
'I am glad of it. My mind revolts at the hollowness of my present life.'
'Well done!' ejaculated Arthur.
'I do,' said Theodora, vehemently. 'Ours has never been a home; it was all artificial, and we had separate worlds. You and I amalgamated best; but, oh! Arthur, you never cared for me as I did for you. The misery of my life has been want of affection. Any one who loved me could have guided me at will. You doubt! You don't know what is in me! How I felt as if I would work night and day at my lessons, if they were ever to be heard by mamma! I remember once, after a day's naughtiness, lying awake, sobbing, and saying, again and again, half aloud, 'I would be good if they would love me!''
'No one would have thought such fancies were in a wild colt like you.'
'I would not have had them guessed for worlds. Then came that one gleam of Helen. It was a new life; but it could not last. She went back, and I cannot say things in letters. She told me to talk to John, but he was of no use. He has always despised me.'
'I don't think you are right there.'
'He would help me in trouble, but I am nothing to him. You were all I had, and when you gave yourself away from me I was left alone with the heart-ache, and began to think myself born to live without love.'
'In spite of the lovers you had in London?'
'You know better. That was the Honourable Miss Martindale. What did they know of the real Theodora?'
'Poor critturs, what indeed! They would have run far enough if they had.'
