“Now, Florence,” said Fanny, “come upstairs into mamma’s room and have some tea, and we’ll look at you. Harry, you needn’t come. You’ve had her to yourself for a long time, and can have her again in the evening.”
Florence, in this way, was taken upstairs and found herself seated by a fire, while three pairs of hands were taking from her her shawls and hat and cloak, almost before she knew where she was.
“It is so odd to have you here,” said Fanny. “We have only one brother, so, of course, we shall make very much of you. Isn’t she nice, mamma?”
“I’m sure she is; very nice. But I shouldn’t have told her so before her face, if you hadn’t asked the question.”
“That’s nonsense, mamma. You mustn’t believe mamma when she pretends to be grand and sententious. It’s only put on as a sort of company air, but we don’t mean to make company of you.”
“Pray don’t,” said Florence.
“I’m so glad you are come just at this time,” said Mary. “I think so much of having Harry’s future wife at my wedding. I wish we were both going to be married the same day.”
“But we are not going to be married for ever so long. Two years hence has been the shortest time named.”
“Don’t be sure of that, Florence,” said Fanny. “We have all of us received a special commission from Harry to talk you out of that heresy; have we not, mamma?”
“I think you had better not tease Florence about that immediately on her arrival. It’s hardly fair.” Then, when they had drunk their tea, Florence was taken away to her own room, and before she was allowed to go downstairs she was intimate with both the girls, and had so far overcome her awe of Harry’s mother as to be able to answer her without confusion.
“Well, sir, what do you think of her?” said Harry to his father, as soon as they were alone.
“I have not had time to think much of her yet. She seems to be very pretty. She isn’t so tall as I thought she would be.”
“No; she’s not tall,” said Harry, in a voice of disappointment.
“I’ve no doubt we shall like her very much. What money is she to have?”
“A hundred a year while her father lives.”
“That’s not much.”
“Much or little, it made no difference with me. I should never have thought of marrying a girl for her money. It’s a kind of thing that I hate. I almost wish she was to have nothing.”
“I shouldn’t refuse it if I were you.”
“Of course, I shan’t refuse it; but what I mean is that I never thought about it when I asked her to have me; and I shouldn’t have been a bit more likely to ask her if she had ten times as much.”
“A fortune with one’s wife isn’t a bad thing for a poor man, Harry.”
“But a poor man must be poor in more senses than one when he looks about to get a fortune in that way.”
“I suppose you won’t marry just yet,” said the father. “Including everything, you would not have five hundred a year, and that would be very close work in London.”
“It’s not quite decided yet, sir. As far as I am myself concerned, I think that people are a great deal too prudent about money. I believe I could live as a married man on a hundred a year, if I had no more; and as for London, I don’t see why London should be more expensive than any other place. You can get exactly what you want in London, and make your halfpence go farther there than anywhere else.”
“And your sovereigns go quicker,” said the rector.
“All that is wanted,” said Harry, “is the will to live on your income, and a little firmness in carrying out your plans.”
The rector of Clavering, as he heard all this wisdom fall from his son’s lips, looked at Harry’s expensive clothes, at the ring on his finger, at the gold chain on his waistcoat, at the studs in his shirt, and smiled gently. He was by no means so clever a man as his son, but he knew something more of the world, and though not much given to general reading, he had read his son’s character. “A great deal of firmness and of fortitude also is wanted for that kind of life,” he said. “There are men who can go through it without suffering, but I would not advise any young man to commence it in a hurry. If I were you I should wait a year or two. Come, let’s have a walk; that is, if you can tear yourself away from your ladylove for an hour. If there