Arabella

“I told him the truth,” replied Mr. Beaumaris.

Arabella nearly dropped the glass. “All the truth?” she faltered, dismay in her face.

“All of it—oh, not the truth about Bertram! His name did not enter into our conversation, and I strictly charged him, when I sent him off to Yorkshire, not to divulge one word of his adventures. Much as I like and esteem your father, I cannot feel that any good purpose would be served by distressing him with that story. I told him the truth about you and me.”

“Was he—dreadfully displeased with me?” asked Arabella, In a small, apprehensive voice.

“He was, I fear, a little grieved,” owned Mr. Beaumaris. “But when he understood that you would never have announced yourself to have been an heiress had you not overheard me talking like a coxcomb to Charles Fleetwood, he was soon brought to perceive that I was even more to blame for the deception than you.”

“Was he,” said Arabella doubtfully.

“Drink your milk, my love! Certainly he was. Between us, your Mama and I were able to show him that without my prompting Charles would never have spread the rumour abroad, and that once the rumour had been so spread it was impossible for you to deny it, since naturally no one ever asked you if it were true. I daresay he may give you a little scold, but I am quite sure you are already forgiven.”

“Did he forgive you too?” asked Arabella, awed.

“I had all the merit of making the confession,” Mr. Beaumaris pointed out virtuously. “He forgave me freely. I cannot imagine why you should look so much surprised: I found him in every way delightful, and have seldom enjoyed an evening more than the one I spent conversing with him in his study, after your Mama and Sophy had gone to bed. Indeed, we sat talking until the candles guttered in their sockets.”

Arabella’s awed expression became even more marked. “Dear sir, what—what did you talk about?” she enquired quite unable to visualize Papa and the Nonpareil hobnobbing together.

“We discussed certain aspects of Wolfs Prolegomena ad Homerum, a copy of which work I chanced to see upon his bookshelf,” replied Mr. Beaumaris calmly. “I myself picked up a copy when I was in Vienna last year, and was much interested in Wolf’s theory that more than one hand was employed in the writing of the Iliad and the Odyssey.”

“Is—is that what the book is about?” asked Arabella.

He smiled, but replied gravely: “Yes, that is what it is about—though your father, a far more profound scholar than I am, found the opening chapter, which treats of the proper methods to be used in the recension of ancient manuscripts, of even more interest. He took me a little out of my depth there, but I hope I may have profited by his very just observations.”

“Did you enjoy that?” demanded Arabella, much impressed.

“Very much. In spite of my frippery ways, you know, I do occasionally enjoy rational conversation, just as I can spend a very agreeable evening playing at lottery-tickets with Mama, and Sophy, and the children.”

“You did not do that!” she cried. “Oh, you are quizzing me! You must have been shockingly bored!”

“Nothing of the sort! The man who could be bored in the midst of such a lively family as yours must be an insufferable fellow, above being pleased by anything. By the by, if that uncle of yours does not come up to scratch, we must do something towards helping Harry to achieve his burning ambition to become a second Nelson. Not the eccentric uncle who died, and left you his entire fortune, but the one who still lives.”

“Oh, pray don’t speak of that dreadful fortune ever again!” begged Arabella, hanging down her head.

“But I must speak of it!” objected Mr. Beaumaris. “Since I presume that we shall frequently be inviting the various members of your family to stay with us, and can hardly pass them all off as heirs and heiresses, some explanation of your superior circumstances must be forthcoming! Your Mama—an admirable woman!—and I decided that the eccentric uncle would serve our turn very well. We were further agreed, quite tacitly, you know, that it will be unnecessary, and, indeed, quite undesirable, to mention the matter to Papa.”

“Oh, no it would never do to tell him that!” she said quickly. “He would not like it at all, and when he is grieved with any of us—Oh, if only he does not discover the scrape Bertram fell into, and if only Bertram didn’t fail to pass that examination at Oxford, which I am much afraid he may have, because it did not sound to me as though—”

“It is not of the slightest consequence,” he interrupted. “Bertram—though Papa does not yet know it—is not going to Oxford: he is going to join a good cavalry regiment, where he will feel very much more at home, and, I daresay, become a great credit to us all.”

At this, Arabella caught his hand in her free one, and kissed it, exclaiming, with a sob in her voice: “How good you are! How much, much too good you are, my dear Mr. Beaumaris!”

“Never,” said Mr. Beaumaris, snatching his hand away, and taking Arabella into his arms so ungently that the rest of the milk in the glass was spilt over her gown, “Never, Arabella, dare to do such a thing again! And don’t talk such fustian to me, or persist in calling me Mr. Beaumaris!”

“Oh, I must!” protested Arabella, into his shoulder. “I can’t call you—I can’t call you—Robert!”

“You have called me Robert very prettily, and you will find, if you persevere, that it will rise quite easily to your lips in a very short space of time.”

“Well, if it will please you, I will try to say it,” said Arabella. She sat up suddenly, as a thought occurred to her, and said in her impulsive way: “Oh, Mr. Beau—I mean, Leaky Peg, in that horrid house where I went to see poor Bertram, and she was so very kind to him! Do you think—?”

“No, Arabella,” said Mr. Beaumaris firmly. “I do not!”

She was disappointed, but docile. “No?” she said.

“No,” said Mr. Beaumaris, drawing her back into his arm.

“I thought we might have taken her away from that dreadful place,” suggested Arabella, smoothing his coat- lapel with a coaxing hand.

“I am quite sure you did, my love, but while I am prepared to receive into my household climbing-boys and stray curs, I must draw the line at a lady rejoicing in the name of Leaky Peg.”

“You don’t think she might learn to become a housemaid, or something of that sort? You know—”

“I only know two things,” interrupted Mr. Beaumaris. “The first is that she is not going to make the attempt in any house of mine; and the second, and by far the more important, is that I adore you, Arabella!”

Arabella was so much pleased by this disclosure that she lost interest in Leaky Peg, and confined herself to the far more agreeable task of convincing Mr. Beaumaris that his very obliging sentiments were entirely reciprocated.