“What!—already?”
“I gave the order yesterday. They are to be sold—I don’t know when. They won’t fetch anything. They never do. One always buys bad horses there for a lot of money, and sells good ones for nothing. Where the difference goes to I never could make out.”
“I suppose the man gets it who sells them.”
“No; he don’t. The fellows get it who have their eyes open. My eyes never were open—except as far as seeing you went.”
“Perhaps if you had opened them wider you wouldn’t have to go to—”
“Don’t, Adelaide. But, as I was saying about the horses, when they’re sold of course the bills won’t go on. And I suppose things will come right. I don’t owe so very much.”
“I’ve got something to tell you,” she said.
“What about?”
“You’re to see my cousin today at two o’clock.”
“The Duke?”
“Yes—the Duke; and he has got a proposition. I don’t know that you need sell your horses, as it seems to make you so very unhappy. You remember Madame Goesler?”
“Of course I do. She was at Harrington.”
“There’s something about a legacy which I can’t understand at all. It is ever so much money, and it did belong to the old Duke. They say it is to be mine—or yours rather, if we should ever be married. And then you know, Gerard, perhaps, after all, you needn’t go to Boulogne.” So she took her revenge, and he had his as he pressed his arm round her waist and kissed her among the ruins of the old Priory.
Precisely at two to the moment he had his interview with the Duke, and very disagreeable it was to both of them. The Duke was bound to explain that the magnificent present which was being made to his cousin was a gift, not from him, but from Madame Goesler; and, though he was intent on making this as plain as possible, he did not like the task. “The truth is, Mr. Maule, that Madame Goesler is unwilling, for reasons with which I need not trouble you, to take the legacy which was left to her by my uncle. I think her reasons to be insufficient, but it is a matter in which she must, of course, judge for herself. She has decided—very much, I fear, at my wife’s instigation, which I must own I regret—to give the money to one of our family, and has been pleased to say that my cousin Adelaide shall be the recipient of her bounty. I have nothing to do with it. I cannot stop her generosity if I would, nor can I say that my cousin ought to refuse it. Adelaide will have the entire sum as her fortune, short of the legacy duty, which, as you are probably aware, will be ten percent, as Madame Goesler was not related to my uncle. The money will, of course, be settled on my cousin and on her children. I believe that will be all I shall have to say, except that Lady Glencora—the Duchess, I mean—wishes that Adelaide should be married from our house. If this be so I shall, of course, hope to have the honour of giving my cousin away.” The Duke was by no means a pompous man, and probably there was no man in England of so high rank who thought so little of his rank. But he was stiff and somewhat ungainly, and the task which he was called upon to execute had been very disagreeable to him. He bowed when he had finished his speech, and Gerard Maule felt himself bound to go, almost without expressing his thanks.
“My dear Mr. Maule,” said Madame Goesler, “you literally must not say a word to me about it. The money was not mine, and under no circumstances would or could be mine. I have given nothing, and could not have presumed to make such a present. The money, I take it, does undoubtedly belong to the present Duke, and, as he does not want it, it is very natural that it should go to his cousin. I trust that you may both live to enjoy it long, but I cannot allow any thanks to be given to me by either of you.”
After that he tried the Duchess, who was somewhat more gracious. “The truth is, Mr. Maule, you are a very lucky man to find twenty thousand pounds and more going begging about the country in that way.”
“Indeed I am, Duchess.”
“And Adelaide is lucky, too, for I doubt whether either of you are given to any very penetrating economies. I am told that you like hunting.”
“I have sent my horses to Tattersall’s.”
“There is enough now for a little hunting, I suppose, unless you have a dozen children. And now you and Adelaide must settle when it’s to be. I hate things to be delayed. People go on quarrelling and fancying this and that, and thinking that the world is full of romance and poetry. When they get married they know better.”
“I hope the romance and poetry do not all vanish.”
“Romance and poetry are for the most part lies, Mr. Maule, and are very apt to bring people into difficulty. I have seen something of them in my time, and I much prefer downright honest figures. Two and two make four; idleness is the root of all evil; love your neighbour like yourself, and the rest of it. Pray remember that Adelaide is to be married from here, and that we shall be very happy that you should make every use you like of our house until then.”
We may so far anticipate in our story as to say that Adelaide Palliser and Gerard Maule were married from Matching Priory at Matching Church early in that October, and that as far as the coming winter was concerned, there certainly was no hunting for the gentleman. They went to Naples instead of Boulogne, and there remained till the warm weather came in the following spring. Nor was that peremptory sale at
