April Lady

‘Oh, well, yes!’ she conceded. ‘But if we were to be married he would be obliged to countenance it, because he would dislike excessively to make a scandal.’

He was silent for a moment. When he did speak it was in a voice of deep mortification, and as though the words were forced from him. ‘In his power – because I am unable to support a wife. That is what renders my position so hopeless!’

‘I would try not to be expensive,’ offered Letty.

He threw her a warm look, but said: ‘You are used to enjoy the elegancies of life. As my affairs now stand I cannot even offer you its comforts. To remove you from the protection of your brother only to place you in a situation where you would be obliged to practise the most stringent economy would be the action of a scoundrel! I must not – indeed, I will not do it!’

‘No, for I don’t think I could practise stringent economies,’ agreed Letty, considering the matter in an impartial spirit. ‘But we could live upon my expectations, couldn’t we?’

‘Borrow on your expectations? No! – a thousand times no!’ declared Mr Allandale, with every evidence of repulsion.

‘Well, it is what Nell’s brother does,’ argued Letty. ‘I don’t know precisely how he contrives to do it, but if he can I am persuaded I could too, for mine are much better than his, you know.’

‘Put it out of your mind!’ begged Mr Allandale, blanching visibly at the appalling vision of debt conjured up by her artless suggestion. ‘Nothing shall prevail upon me to take Lord Dysart for my model!’

‘No, very true!’ she replied, recalling his lordship’s unamiable behaviour. ‘I am sure he is the most ramshackle person – besides being excessively disagreeable! Only what is to be done, if you don’t think my allowance sufficient? I have five hundred pounds a year, you know, and I need spend very little of it on my dresses, because I have a great many already.’ She stopped, and her eyes brightened. ‘Yes, and besides that I have suddenly had an excellent notion! I can very well buy hundreds of ells of silk, and muslin, and cambric – enough to set me up for years, I daresay – and tell all the mercers to send their bills to Giles!’

‘Good God!’ ejaculated Mr Allandale, pausing in his perambulations to gaze upon her with starting eyes.

She perceived that her suggestion had not found favour. ‘You don’t think that is what I should do? But consider, Jeremy! Even if he refused to pay – and I don’t think that in the least likely – they couldn’t dun me, because I should be in South America, and so all would be well.’

It spoke volumes for the depth of Mr Allandale’s love that after the first stunned moment he recovered from an involuntary recoil, and realized that this ingenious solution to their difficulties arose not from depravity but from a vast and touching innocence. ‘That,’ he said gently, ‘would be dishonest, my dearest.’

‘Oh!’ said Letty.

It was plain that she was unconvinced. Mr Allandale was aware that it behoved him to bring her to a more proper frame of mind, but he felt, at this present, unequal to the task, and merely said: ‘Besides, if I were to marry you out of hand there can be little doubt that Cardross would discontinue your allowance.’

She was quite incredulous. ‘No! He would not be so shabby!’

‘He warned me that your fortune remains in his hands until you attain the age of twenty-five. How much of its income you may enjoy is at his discretion. I could not mistake his meaning.’

‘Twenty-five?’ gasped Letty. ‘Oh, of all the infamous things! Why, I shall be quite old! I declare I am excessively thankful that I can’t remember my papa, for if he served me such a trick as that he must have been a most detestable man! You would think he meant Giles to chouse me out of my inheritance!’

‘No, there is no question of such a thing as that,’ said Mr Allandale painstakingly. ‘It is only –’

‘Well, I don’t mean to be worsted by either of them, and so I promise you!’ Letty said briskly. ‘Depend upon it, I shall hit upon a way of bringing Giles about. But I must own, love, that it makes it very hard if you must sail so soon. Jeremy, pray do not!’

‘You don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I could not refuse such an adventitious appointment! You would not have me do so.’

‘Oh, no! Not refuse it, but could you not tell them that it is not perfectly convenient to you to go to Brazil so soon? Tell them that you will go in three months! I am persuaded we shall have come about by then.’

This drew a slight, melancholy smile from him, but he shook his head. ‘No, indeed I could not do such a thing! Consider, dearest, how unwise in me it would be to offend my kind patron! I owe this advancement to Lord Roxwell, you know, and to give the least appearance of ingratitude –’

‘I have been thinking about that,’ she interrupted. ‘I daresay he was anxious to oblige you, only the thing is that he has quite mistaken the matter.’

‘How so?’ he demanded, looking bewildered. ‘He was good enough to say that he had my advancement very much to heart, certainly. I believe I told you that he held my father in great affection.’

‘Yes, you did, and it has given me a very good notion. You must go to him instantly, and tell him that you would prefer to be made ambassador!’

‘Tell him that I would prefer to be made ambassador?’ repeated Mr Allandale, in a bemused voice.

‘In a very civil way, of course,’ she urged, seeing that her notion was not having that success with him which it deserved. ‘You could say that now you have had time to consider the matter you feel that it would be better if you became an ambassador; or – But you will know just how to say it in an exceptionable way!’

‘No!’ said Mr Allandale, with a good deal of conviction. ‘I do not know! My dearest life, you don’t know – you have not the least conception – ! It will be many years before I can hope to be so elevated. As for asking Lord Roxwell – Good God!’

‘Should you prefer it if I were to ask him?’ enquired Letty. ‘I am not particularly acquainted with him, but Giles knows him, and we meet him for ever at parties.’

Mr Allandale sat down again beside her, and grasped both her hands. ‘Letty, promise me you will do no such thing!’ he begged. ‘It is not to be thought of! Believe me, it would be quite disastrous!’