Heartsease; Or, The Brother's Wife Part 77

'Nonsense! You don't look two-and-twenty! Lady Elizabeth's sister would not believe you were my married brother. You have not the look of it.'

Arthur laughed, and said, 'Absurd!' but was flattered.

When he told his wife of the invitation, he added, 'I wonder if there is a fresh breeze blowing up!'

'I trust not.'

'If she really wants to go, and she has never seen the thing, I had rather take her in a sober way by ourselves, and come home at our own time.'

'Why don't you! It would be very pleasant for you both, and I should be so glad. Think how she shuts herself up with me!'

'We will see. Anything for a quiet life.'

Theodora, being fond of horses, and used to hear much about them from her brother, had a real curiosity to go to Epsom, and broached the subject the next morning at breakfast. Before any answer had been given, Mr. Fotheringham made his appearance.

'Well, Percy,' said Arthur, 'you find this sister of mine bent on dragging me to Epsom. Come with us! You will have an opportunity of getting up an article against fashionable life.'

Theodora was ready to hide her desire for his consent, but thought better of it, and said, 'It is of no use to ask him.'

'Indeed I would go,' said Percy; 'I wish I could; but I came here to tell you that my Aunt Fotheringham is coming to London early on Wednesday for advice for her son, and will only be there two days, so that it is impossible to be away.'

'Is Sir Antony Fotheringham coming?' asked Violet, as Theodora did not speak.

'No; he is a fixture. He has never even seen a railroad. My aunt could hardly persuade him to let her come up without the old chariot and posters.'

'You will bring them here to dinner,' said Arthur. 'Thank you, I must not promise; I cannot tell what Pelham may be fit for. I must take him to the Zoological Gardens. How he will enjoy them, poor fellow! The only thing to guard against will be his growing too much excited.'

Percy was engaged that morning, and soon departed, with hardly a word from Theodora, whose amiability had been entirely overthrown by finding her service postponed to that of his aunt.

'There's the Derby happily disposed of!' said Arthur, rising from the breakfast-table. 'I don't see why,' said Theodora.

'What! Is not this Percy's well-beloved aunt, who nursed Helen, and is such a friend of John's?'

'I am not going to dance attendance on any one.'

'It is your concern,' said Arthur; 'but, if you don't take care, Percy won't stand much more of this.'

Vouchsafing no answer, she quitted the room. Arthur made a gesture of annoyance. 'She treats Percy like a dog!' he said. 'I believe my aunt is right, and that it never will come to good!'

'Shall you go with her, then?'

'I must, I suppose. She will not let me off now.'

'If we do not vex her by refusing, I hope she will give it up of herself. I am almost sure she will, if no one says anything about it.'

'Very well: I am the last person to begin. I am sick of her quarrels.'

Two wills were dividing Theodora: one calling on her to renounce her pride and obstinacy, take up the yoke while yet there was time, earn the precious sense of peace, and confer gladness on the honest heart which she had so often pained. Violet was as the genius of this better mind, and her very presence infused such thoughts as these, disposing her not indeed openly to yield, but to allow it to drop in silence.

But there was another will, which reminded her that she had thrice been baffled, and that she had heard the soft tyrant rejoicing with her brother over her defeat! She thought of Violet so subjugating Arthur, that he had not even dared to wish for his favourite amus.e.m.e.nt, as if he could not be trusted!

Such recollections provoked her to show that there was one whose determination would yield to no one's caprice, and impelled her to maintain the unconquerable spirit in which she had hitherto gloried.

Violet's unexpressed opinion was tricked out as an object of defiance; and if she represented the genius of meekness, wilfulness was not without outward prompters.

Mrs. Finch and Miss Gardner called, and found her alone. 'There!' said the former, 'am I not very forgiving? Actually to come and seek you out again, after the way you served us. Now, on your honour, what was the meaning of it?'

'The meaning was, that this poor child had been told it was etiquette for me to have a chaperon at my heels, and made such a disturbance that I was obliged to give up the point. I am not ashamed. She is a good girl, though a troublesome one at times.'

'Who would have thought that pretty face could be so prudish!'

'I suppose she is against your coming to Epsom!' said Jane, interrupting her sister.

'No; my brother and I have been proposing to go, independently; so as to be able to come home at our own time.'

'You had better be satisfied with that, Georgina,' said Jane. 'We shall find ourselves together at the stand, and it will spare a few dangerous hysterics.'

'I shall do nothing underhand,' said Theodora. 'I shall proclaim my intention of joining you; but I doubt, because Lady Fotheringham is coming to London.'

'Her ladyship herself?' cried Georgina. 'What, in the name of wonder, brings her from her antediluvian hall?'

'She brings her son for advice.'

'We can say no more,' said Jane. 'Percy's expectations would be ruined if the good lady found his intended concerned in such naughty doings.

She must stay at home.'

'To entertain Pelham!' cried Mrs. Finch, in a paroxysm of laughing, of her most unreal kind.

'Let me give you one piece of advice,' said Jane. 'Don't make yourself too great a favourite, as I unwittingly did, or you will have no cessation of "I have a pony; it can trot; it can canter."'

'I have not decided.'

'No,' said Jane, 'you cannot do it. We know Lady Fotheringham too well to ask you to lose your place in her regard for our sake. Probably this is a most important visit, and all may depend on her first impressions.'

'I don't depend on her.'

'Ah! you don't understand. She is the managing partner, and I have little doubt this is only an excuse for coming to inspect you. It is quite in their power, you know, to do the only rational thing under the circ.u.mstances--make an eldest son of Percy, and set poor Pelham aside, with enough to make him happy.

'I do believe that must be it!' cried Georgina. 'She would be a dear old woman if she would only do it!'

'And you see it would be fatal for Theodora to appear as a fashionable young lady, given to races, and the like vanities.'

'I shall seem nothing but what I am.'

'She would find Mrs. Martindale sighing at her inability to keep you out of bad company. So sorry to trust you with us. She did her utmost. No, no, Theodora; you must stay at home, and the good lady will be charmed.'

'I do not intend to be turned from my course.'

'No! Now, Jane, you should not have spoken in that way,' said her sister. 'You will only make Theodora more resolved to come with us; and, indeed, I had rather she did not, if it is to do her any harm.'