“There is something of the kind,” said Miss Marrable.
“Something of the kind! I suppose it is settled; isn’t it?”
Miss Marrable was a sensible woman, one not easily led away by appearances. Nevertheless, it is probable that had Mr. Gilmore been less lugubrious, more sleek, less “seedy,” she would have been more prone than she now was to have made instant use of Captain Marrable’s loss of fortune on behalf of this other suitor. She would immediately have felt that perhaps something might be done, and she would have been tempted to tell him the whole story openly. As it was she could not so sympathise with the man before her, as to take him into her confidence. No doubt he was Mr. Gilmore, the favoured friend of the Fenwicks, the owner of the Privets, and the man of whom Mary had often said that there was no fault to be found with him. But there was nothing bright about him, and she did not know how to encourage him as a lover. “As Mary has told you,” she said, “I suppose there can be no harm in my repeating that they are engaged,” said Miss Marrable.
“Of course they are. I am aware of that. I believe the gentleman is related to you.”
“He is a cousin—not very near.”
“And I suppose he has your good will?”
“As to that, Mr. Gilmore, I don’t know that I can do any good by speaking. Young ladies in these days don’t marry in accordance with the wishes of their old aunts.”
“But Miss Lowther thinks so much of you! I don’t want to ask any questions that ought not to be asked. If this match is so settled that it must go on, why there’s an end of it. I’ll just tell you the truth openly, Miss Marrable. I have loved—I do love your niece with all my heart. When I received her letter it upset me altogether, and every hour since has made the feeling worse. I have come here just to learn whether there may still possibly be a chance. You will not quarrel with me because I have loved her so well?”
“Indeed no,” said Miss Marrable, whose heart was gradually becoming soft, and who was learning to forget the mud on Mr. Gilmore’s boots and trousers.
“I heard that Captain Marrable was—at any rate, not a very rich man; that he could hardly afford to marry his cousin. I did hear, also, that the match might in other respects not be suitable.”
“There is no other objection, Mr. Gilmore.”
“It is the case, Miss Marrable, that these things sometimes come on suddenly and go off suddenly. I won’t deny that if I could have gained Miss Lowther’s heart without the interference of any interloper, it would have been to me a brighter joy than anything that can now be possible. A man cannot be proud of his position who seeks to win a woman who owns a preference for another man.” Miss Marrable’s heart had now become very soft, and she began to perceive, of her own knowledge, that Mr. Gilmore was at any rate a gentleman. “But I would take her in any way that I could get her. Perhaps—that is to say, it might be—” And then he stopped.
Should she tell him everything? She had a strong idea that it was her first duty to be true to her own sex and to her own niece. But were she to tell the man the whole story it would do her niece no harm. She still believed that the match with Captain Marrable must be broken off. Even were this done it would be very long, she thought, before Mary would bring herself to listen with patience to another suitor. But of course it would be best for them all that this episode in Mary’s life should be forgotten and put out of sight as soon as possible. Had not this dangerous captain come up, Mary, no doubt—so thought Miss Marrable—would at last have complied with her friends’ advice, and have accepted a marriage which was in all respects advantageous. If the episode could only get itself forgotten and put out of sight, she might do so still. But there must be delay. Miss Marrable, after waiting for half a minute to consider, determined that she would tell him something. “No doubt,” she said, “Captain Marrable’s income is so small that the match is one that Mary’s friends cannot approve.”
“I don’t think much of money,” he said.
“Still it is essential to comfort, Mr. Gilmore.”
“What I mean to say is, that I am the last man in the world to insist upon that kind of thing, or to appear to triumph because my income is larger than another man’s.” Miss Marrable was now quite sure that Mr. Gilmore was a gentleman. “But if the match is to be broken off—”
“I cannot say that it will be broken off.”
“But it may be?”
“Certainly it is possible. There are difficulties which may necessarily separate them.”
“If it be so, my feelings will be the same as they have always been since I first knew her. That is all that I have got to say.”
Then she told him pretty nearly everything. She said nothing of the money which Walter Marrable would have inherited had it not been for Colonel Marrable’s iniquity; but she did tell him that the young people would have no income except the Captain’s pay, and poor Mary’s little fifty pounds a-year; and she went on to explain that, as far as she was concerned, and as far as her cousin the clergyman was concerned, everything would be done to
