There was much honesty displayed on this occasion. The Squire, when he was thus instigated to persevere, did his best to describe the manner in which he had been rejected. His powers of description were not very great, but he did not conceal anything wilfully. “She was as hard as nails, you know.”
“I don’t know that that means much. Horace’s filly kicked a few, no doubt.”
“She told me that if I’d go one way, she’d go the other!”
“They always say about the hardest things that come to their tongues. They don’t curse and swear as we do, or there’d be no bearing them. If you really like her—”
“She’s such a well-built creature! There’s a look of blood about her I don’t see in any of ’em. That sort of breeding is what one wants to get through the mud with.”
Then it was that the cousin recommended a letter to Lord Chiltern. Lord Chiltern was at the present moment to be regarded as the lady’s guardian, and was the lover’s intimate friend. A direct proposal had already been made to the young lady, and this should now be repeated to the gentleman who for the time stood in the position of her father. The Squire for a while hesitated, declaring that he was averse to make his secret known to Lord Chiltern. “One doesn’t want every fellow in the country to know it,” he said. But in answer to this the cousin was very explicit. There could be but little doubt that Lord Chiltern knew the secret already; and he would certainly be rather induced to keep it as a secret than to divulge it if it were communicated to him officially. And what other step could the Squire take? It would not be likely that he should be asked again to Harrington Hall with the express view of repeating his offer. The cousin was quite of opinion that a written proposition should be made; and on that very night the cousin himself wrote out a letter for the Squire to copy in the morning. On the morning the Squire copied the letter—not without additions of his own, as to which he had very many words with his discreet cousin—and in a formal manner handed it to Lord Chiltern towards the afternoon of that day, having devoted his whole morning to the finding of a proper opportunity for doing so. Lord Chiltern had read the letter, and had, as we see, delivered it to Adelaide Palliser. “That’s another proposal from Mr. Spooner,” Lady Chiltern said, as soon as they were alone.
“Exactly that.”
“I knew he’d go on with it. Men are such fools.”
“I don’t see that he’s a fool at all;” said Lord Chiltern, almost in anger. “Why shouldn’t he ask a girl to be his wife? He’s a rich man, and she hasn’t got a farthing.”
“You might say the same of a butcher, Oswald.”
“Mr. Spooner is a gentleman.”
“You do not mean to say that he’s fit to marry such a girl as Adelaide Palliser?”
“I don’t know what makes fitness. He’s got a red nose, and if she don’t like a red nose—that’s unfitness. Gerard Maule’s nose isn’t red, and I dare say therefore he’s fitter. Only, unfortunately, he has no money.”
“Adelaide Palliser would no more think of marrying Mr. Spooner than you would have thought of marrying the cook.”
“If I had liked the cook I should have asked her, and I don’t see why Mr. Spooner shouldn’t ask Miss Palliser. She needn’t take him.”
In the meantime Miss Palliser was reading the following letter:—
Spoon Hall, 11th March, 18—.
My dear Lord Chiltern—
I venture to suppose that at present you are acting as the guardian of Miss Palliser, who has been staying at your house all the winter. If I am wrong in this I hope you will pardon me, and consent to act in that capacity for this occasion. I entertain feelings of the greatest admiration and warmest affection for the young lady I have named, which I ventured to express when I had the pleasure of staying at Harrington Hall in the early part of last month. I cannot boast that I was received on that occasion with much favour; but I know that I am not very good at talking, and we are told in all the books that no man has a right to expect to be taken at the first time of asking. Perhaps Miss Palliser will allow me, through you, to request her to consider my proposal with more deliberation than was allowed to me before, when I spoke to her perhaps with injudicious hurry.
So far the Squire adopted his cousin’s words without alteration.
I am the owner of my own property—which is more than everybody can say. My income is nearly £4,000 a year. I shall be willing to make any proper settlement that may be recommended by the lawyers—though I am strongly of opinion that an estate shouldn’t be crippled for the sake of the widow. As to refurnishing the old house, and all that, I’ll do anything that Miss Palliser may please. She knows my taste about hunting, and I know hers, so that there need not be any difference of opinion on that score.
Miss Palliser can’t suspect me of any interested motives. I come forward because I think she is the most charming girl I ever saw, and because I love her with all my heart. I haven’t got very much to say for myself, but if she’ll consent to be the mistress of Spoon Hall, she shall have all that the heart of a woman can desire.
