“Why didn’t you tell them about the Mays?” said Clarence, as the two ladies went out. “They live in Carlingford, and I should think it would be pleasant on both sides.”
“My dear boy, you forget the difference of position,” said Mrs. Copperhead. “They are Dissenters.”
“Oh, I like that,” cried Clarence, half angry, as himself sharing the disadvantages of the connection. “A needy beggar like May has a great deal to stand upon. I like that.”
“But it is true all the same,” said Mrs. Copperhead, shaking her head. “And you can see the difference at once. I dare say Miss Beecham is a very clever young woman, but between her and Miss May what a difference there is! Anyone can see it—”
“I am afraid then I am stupid, for I can’t see it, mother. They are both pretty girls, but for amusing you and that sort of thing give me Phoebe. She is worth twenty of the other. As sharp as a needle, and plenty to say for herself. This is the kind of girl I like.”
“I am very sorry for it. I hope that is not the kind of wife you will like,” said Mrs. Copperhead, with a sigh.
“Oh, wife! they haven’t a penny, either the one or the other,” said Clarence, with delightful openness, “and we may be sure that would not suit the governor even if it suited me.”
In the meantime Mrs. Beecham and Phoebe were walking up the broad pavement of Portland Place towards their home.
“It is pleasant to see the mother and the son together,” said Mrs. Beecham, who was determined to see everything in the best light that concerned the Copperheads. “They are so devoted to each other, and, Phoebe, dear—I don’t like to talk in this way to a sensible girl like you, but you must see it with your own eyes. You have certainly made a great impression upon Clarence Copperhead. When he said he hoped to see you in Carlingford, and asked, might he call? it was exactly like asking my permission to pay you his addresses; it is very flattering, but it is embarrassing as well.”
“I do not feel particularly flattered, mamma; and I think if I were you I would not give him the address.”
Mrs. Beecham looked anxiously in her daughter’s face.
“Is it from prudence, Phoebe, or is it that you don’t like him, that you wouldn’t have him if he asked you?”
“We must wait till he does ask me,” said Phoebe, decisively. “Till then I can’t possibly tell. But I don’t want him at Carlingford. I know that grandpapa and grandmamma are—in trade.”
“Yes, dear,” said Mrs. Beecham, in a subdued voice.
“Dissenters, and in trade; and he is going to stay with the Dorsets, fine county people. Don’t give him the address; if we meet by chance, there is no harm done. I am not ashamed of anyone belonging to me. But you can say that you don’t think his father would like him to be visiting me at Carlingford—which I am sure would be quite true.”
“Indeed he might go much farther without finding anyone so well worth visiting,” said the mother, indignant, to which Phoebe nodded her head in tranquil assent.
“That is neither here nor there,” she said; “you can always tell him so, and that will please Mr. Copperhead, if ever he comes to hear of it. He thought at one time that I was too entertaining. One knows what that means. I should like him to see how little I cared.”
“But, my dear, Clarence Copperhead would be worth—a little attention. He could give a girl—a very nice position,” Mrs. Beecham faltered, looking at her daughter between every word.
“I am not saying anything against Clarence Copperhead,” said Phoebe, with composure, “but I should like his dear papa to know how little I care, and that you have refused him my address.”
This was all she said on the subject. Phoebe was quite ready to allow that Clarence was everything that her mother had said, and she had fully worked out her own theory on marriage, which will probably be hereafter expounded in these pages, so that she was not at all shocked by having his advantages thus pointed out to her. But there was no hurry, she said to herself. If it was not Clarence Copperhead, it would be someone else, and why should she, at this early stage of her career, attempt to precipitate the designs of Providence? She had plenty of time before her, and was in no hurry for any change; and a genuine touch of nature in her heart made her anxious for an opportunity of showing her independence to that arrogant and offensive “leading member,” who made the life of the office-bearers in the Crescent a burden to them. If she could only so drive him into a corner, that he should be obliged to come to her in his despair, and beg her to accept his son’s hand to save him from going off in a galloping consumption, that would have been a triumph after Phoebe’s heart. To be sure this was a perfectly vain and wildly romantic hope—it was the only bit of wild and girlish romance in the bosom of a very well-educated, well-intentioned, and sensible young woman. She had seen her parents put up with the arrogance of the millionaire for a long time without rebelling any more than they did; but Mr. Copperhead had gone further than Phoebe could bear; and thoroughly as she understood her own position, and all its interests, this one vain fancy had found a footing in her mind. If she could but humble him and make him sue to her. It was not likely, but for such a triumph the sensible Phoebe would have done much. It was the one point on which she was silly, but on that she was as silly as any cynic could desire.
And thus with a huge trunk full of charming dresses, a dressing-case fit for
