Such a man almost naturally looks to marriage as an assistance in the dreary fight. It soon becomes clear to him that he cannot marry without money, and he learns to think that heiresses have been invented exactly to suit his case. He is conscious of having been subjected to hardship by Fortune, and regards female wealth as his legitimate mode of escape from it. He has got himself, his position, and, perhaps, his title to dispose of, and they are surely worth so much per annum. As for giving anything away, that is out of the question. He has not been so placed as to be able to give. But, being an honest man, he will, if possible, make a fair bargain. Lord Fawn was certainly an honest man, and he had been endeavouring for the last six or seven years to make a fair bargain. But then it is so hard to decide what is fair. Who is to tell a Lord Fawn how much per annum he ought to regard himself as worth? He had, on one or two occasions, asked a high price, but no previous bargain had been made. No doubt he had come down a little in his demand in suggesting a matrimonial arrangement to a widow with a child, and with only four thousand a year. Whether or no that income was hers in perpetuity, or only for life, he had not positively known when he made his offer. The will made by Sir Florian Eustace did not refer to the property at all. In the natural course of things, the widow would only have a life-interest in the income. Why should Sir Florian make away, in perpetuity, with his family property? Nevertheless, there had been a rumour abroad that Sir Florian had been very generous; that the Scotch estate was to go to a second son in the event of there being a second son;—but that otherwise it was to be at the widow’s own disposal. No doubt, had Lord Fawn been persistent, he might have found out the exact truth. He had, however, calculated that he could afford to accept even the life-income. If more should come of it, so much the better for him. He might, at any rate, so arrange the family matters, that his heir, should he have one, should not at his death be called upon to pay something more than half the proceeds of the family property to his mother—as was now done by himself.
Lord Fawn breakfasted at Fawn Court on the Monday, and his mother sat at the table with him, pouring out his tea. “Oh, Frederic,” she said, “it is so important!”
“Just so;—very important indeed. I should like you to call and see her either today or tomorrow.”
“That’s of course.”
“And you had better get her down here.”
“I don’t know that she’ll come. Ought I to ask the little boy?”
“Certainly,” said Lord Fawn, as he put a spoonful of egg into his mouth; “certainly.”
“And Miss Macnulty?”
“No; I don’t see that at all. I’m not going to marry Miss Macnulty. The child, of course, must be one of us.”
“And what is the income, Frederic?”
“Four thousand a year. Something more, nominally, but four thousand to spend.”
“You are sure about that?”
“Quite sure.”
“And forever?”
“I believe so. Of that I am not sure.”
“It makes a great difference, Frederic.”
“A very great difference indeed. I think it is her own. But, at any rate, she is much younger than I am, and there need be no settlement out of my property. That is the great thing. Don’t you think she’s—nice?”
“She is very lovely.”
“And clever?”
“Certainly very clever. I hope she is not self-willed, Frederic.”
“If she is, we must try and balance it,” said Lord Fawn, with a little smile. But, in truth, he had thought nothing about any such quality as that to which his mother now referred. The lady had an income. That was the first and most indispensable consideration. She was fairly wellborn, was a lady, and was beautiful. In doing Lord Fawn justice, we must allow that, in all his attempted matrimonial speculations, some amount of feminine loveliness had been combined with feminine wealth. He had for two years been a suitor of Violet Effingham, who was the acknowledged beauty of the day—of Violet Effingham who, at the present time, was the wife of Lord Chiltern; and he had offered himself thrice to Madame Max Goesler, who was reputed to be as rich as she was beautiful. In either case, the fortune would have been greater than that which he would now win, and the money would certainly have been forever. But in these attempts he had failed; and Lord Fawn was not a man to think himself ill-used because he did not get the first good thing for which he asked.
“I suppose I may tell the girls?” said Lady Fawn.
“Yes;—when I am gone. I must be off now, only I could not bear not to come and see you.”
“It was so like you, Frederic.”
“And you’ll go today?”
“Yes; if you wish it—certainly.”
“Go up in the carriage, you know, and take one of the girls with you.
