The Cardinal's Snuff-Box Part 30

"Precisely," said she. "Such as they are, they're me own."

"Really?" he responded, in the tone of profound and sympathetic interest we are apt to affect when parents begin about their children.

"I give you my word for it," she a.s.sured him. "But I mention the fact, not in a spirit of boastfulness, but merely to show you that I 'm not entirely alone and unprotected. There's an American at our hotel, by the bye, who goes up and down telling every one who'll listen that it ought to be Washingtonia, and declaiming with tears in his eyes against the arrogance of the English in changing Washington to Wellington. As he's a respectable-looking man with grown-up daughters, I should think very likely he's right."

"Very likely," said Peter. "It's an American tree, is n't it?"

"Whether it is n't or whether it is," said she, "one thing is undeniable: you English are the coldest-blooded animals south of the Arctic Circle."

"Oh--? Are we?" he doubted.

"You are that," she affirmed, with sorrowing emphasis.

"Ah, well," he reflected, "the temperature of our blood does n't matter.

We're, at any rate, notoriously warm-hearted."

"Are you indeed?" she exclaimed. "If you are, it's a mighty quiet kind of notoriety, let me tell you, and a mighty cold kind of warmth."

Peter laughed.

"You're all for prudence and expediency. You're the slaves of your reason. You're dominated by the head, not by the heart. You're little better than calculating-machines. Are you ever known, now, for instance, to risk earth and heaven, and all things between them, on a sudden unthinking impulse?"

"Not often, I daresay," he admitted.

"And you sit there as serene as a brazen statue, and own it without a quaver," she reproached him.

"Surely," he urged, "in my character of Englishman, it behooves me to appear smug and self-satisfied?"

"You're right," she agreed. "I wonder," she continued, after a moment's pause, during which her eyes looked thoughtful, "I wonder whether you would fall upon and annihilate a person who should venture to offer you a word of well-meant advice."

"I should sit as serene as a brazen statue, and receive it without a quaver," he promised.

"Well, then," said she, leaning forward a little, and dropping her voice, "why don't you take your courage in both hands, and ask her?"

Peter stared.

"Be guided by me--and do it," she said.

"Do what?" he puzzled.

"Ask her to marry you, of course," she returned amiably. Then, without allowing him time to shape an answer, "Touche!" she cried, in triumph.

"I 've brought the tell-tale colour to your cheek. And you a brazen statue! 'They do not love who do not show their love.' But, in faith, you show yours to any one who'll be at pains to watch you. Your eyes betray you as often as ever you look at her. I had n't observed you for two minutes by the clock, when I knew your secret as well as if you 'd chosen me for your confessor. But what's holding you back? You can't expect her to do the proposing. Now curse me for a meddlesome Irishwoman, if you will--but why don't you throw yourself at her feet, and ask her, like a man?"

"How can I?" said Peter, abandoning any desire he may have felt to beat about the bush. Nay, indeed, it is very possible he welcomed, rather than resented, the Irishwoman's meddling.

"What's to prevent you?" said she.

"Everything," said he.

"Everything is nothing. That?"

"Dear lady! She is hideously rich, for one thing."

"Getaway with you!" was the dear lady's warm expostulation. "What has money to do with the question, if a man's in love? But that's the English of it--there you are with your cold-blooded calculation. You chain up your natural impulses as if they were dangerous beasts. Her money never saved you from succ.u.mbing to her enchantments. Why should it bar you from declaring your pa.s.sion."

"There's a sort of tendency in society," said Peter, "to look upon the poor man who seeks the hand of a rich woman as a fortunehunter."

"A fig for the opinion of society," she cried. "The only opinion you should consider is the opinion of the woman you adore. I was an heiress myself; and when Teddy O'Donovan proposed to me, upon my conscience I believe the sole piece of property he possessed in the world was a corkscrew. So much for her ducats!"

Peter laughed.

"Men, after coffee, are frequently in the habit of smoking," said she.

"You have my sanction for a cigarette. It will keep you in countenance."

"Thank you," said Peter, and lit his cigarette.

"And surely, it's a countenance you'll need, to be going on like that about her money. However--if you can find a ray of comfort in the information--small good will her future husband get of it, even if he is a fortunehunter: for she gives the bulk of it away in charity, and I 'm doubtful if she keeps two thousand a year for her own spending."

"Really?" said Peter; and for a breathing-s.p.a.ce it seemed to him that there was a ray of comfort in the information.

"Yes, you may rate her at two thousand a year," said Mrs. O'Donovan Florence. "I suppose you can match that yourself. So the disparity disappears."

The ray of comfort had flickered for a second, and gone out.

"There are unfortunately other disparities," he remarked gloomily.

"Put a name on them," said she.

"There's her rank."

His impetuous adviser flung up a hand of scorn.

"Her rank, do you say?" she cried. "To the mischief with her rank.

What's rank to love? A woman is only a woman, whether she calls herself a d.u.c.h.ess or a dairy-maid. A woman with any spirit would marry a bank manager, if she loved him. A man's a man. You should n't care that for her rank."

"That," was a snap of Mrs. O' Donovan Florence's fingers.

"I suppose you know," said Peter, "that I am a Protestant."

"Are you--you poor benighted creature? Well, that's easily remedied. Go and get yourself baptised directly."

She waved her hand towards the town, as if to recommend his immediate procedure in quest of a baptistery.

Peter laughed again.

"I 'm afraid that's more easily said than done."

"Easy!" she exclaimed. "Why, you've only to stand still and let yourself be sprinkled. It's the priest who does the work. Don't tell me," she added, with persuasive inconsequence, "that you'll allow a little thing like being in love with a woman to keep you back from professing the true faith."