Eleanor called out, “Sir Charles,” and he turned back. She rose also, saying, “If you have the time, might we walk the park again, now that the weather is fairer?”
It was best to speak plainly before they were in even more confined quarters together during their project to the castle ruins. Sir Charles gave her a surprised look, but recovered and said he would ride later if it meant he could have her company now.
“Gentlemen, when I am done with Miss Tilney, perhaps we can ride out together? Brampton, you have a horse, do you not?”
Philip drew back. It was an insulting thing to ask a young man, implying that he had not the fortune to keep his own horse. General Tilney had even just mentioned Philip’s horses; Sir Charles was either inattentive or unkind. Philip was not of a nature to enjoy a conflict, but he still had his pride.
Before he could say anything, Eleanor said with forced pleasantness, “Mr Brampton is an excellent rider, Sir Charles. You shall see for yourself when we all go to Longtown Castle tomorrow.”
She came round the table and linked an arm through his, guiding him toward the door and away from where she could feel Philip’s gaze boring into them both. “Alice and I can take my father’s carriage, but I presume you men will all ride. Mr Brampton has a fine chestnut mare. What horses did you bring to Welland?”
She kept up this distracting talk out of the breakfast room and listened to Sir Charles boast of his carriage and his stable until they were out of doors. It was some time into this conversation before he thought to ask if she rode herself.
“I enjoy it, but I do not have a mount of my own.”
There was no point in elaborating that her father did not think it necessary to spend his money to stable a horse for her and another for a servant to ride with her. Philip or Henry sometimes saw her seated, if Henry brought his mare to Northanger or they were visiting Vaughan at Belleville Hall and Philip sent over his.
“With a father as wealthy as yours, you ought to have one. Why not ask your father for a horse?”
How often had she wished for the courage to ask her father that since he spent hundreds on his pineapples, why could he not afford one horse for his only daughter? Confronting the general was pointless because he would never yield. Eleanor could only nod to show that she had heard Sir Charles.
After a moment he added, with a long look, “You might expect your husband to provide you with a horse. It is the sort of advantage a woman of your situation would consider when looking for a husband.”
Sir Charles had taken her seeking him out and her friends’ hints the way she had intended. He did not have Philip’s pleasing address, and she did not feel a comfortable, silent camaraderie with him as she felt with Philip, either. Eleanor began to feel ashamed of herself, quite ashamed.
It had all seemed like such a rational plan until she had to trifle with the feelings of another person. Sir Charles was not a man of deep inward reflections, but he might have the same sensibilities of any other single man. It was disingenuous to hint she admired him when all she wanted was to have the freedom that his name could grant her.
“Sir Charles, I feel that,” she began haltingly, “it might be presumptuous—in fact, I know it is—but you ought to know ...” Eleanor sighed. Was there anything more reprehensible to a man than a woman speaking her feelings first?I do not even have any feelings to confess.It was equally inappropriate and awkward to hint that her interest in marrying him was purely for the sake of his situation.
Sir Charles kept striding along, his hands clasped behind his back, with complete unconcern. How could he appear so calm when she was stammering and her heart was pounding nervously? She supposed that for all of her anxious feelings, she had not actually expressed anything yet to which he could reply.
After a few more paces Eleanor tried again. “After what my father said at breakfast and the game we played last night, you ought to know that when I marry, my first object is to secure a comfortable home with a gentleman in a situation in life that my father will approve of. Any other expectations... I first desire my own establishment, ahead of any romantic considerations.”
She exhaled swiftly, happy that the words were finally out.
Her companion gave her a quick look and kept walking. She feared he had not taken her hint until he said, “I shall be a fine figure in the world, Miss Tilney. I have an interest in political concerns, and I intend to get into Parliament. I expect so many people to dine with me, and many that I never saw before. It is not at all charming to me. In fact, it is fatiguing for me!”
“I, I am sorry that such a task is unpleasant—”
“I need a wife, you know,” he went on. “A hostess, a wife, would solve that problem for me. Someone with excellent connexions and fortune, of course. Someone who can readily run a large and wealthy household, someone young and pretty and elegant who can keep up political and social connexions for me.”
For the sake of his career Sir Charles was forced to make everybody like him, and he needed a wife to help make that happen. She could perhaps enjoy being a partner in his pursuits. “Do you,” she began slowly, “do you expect your wife to have an ardent love for you?”
He shrugged. “I expect honour, duty, affection, all the typical things a husband should expect, but what I need is a wife who can make useful and interesting conversation and who can gather intelligence from those she speaks with and keep them in store for future service.”
“An intelligent wife would be an asset to a man in your position, certainly,” she agreed.
“Well, not very intelligent,” he said, still striding at a brisk pace. “You must agree that the manners of any woman might be rendered less delicate by too great an increase in her knowledge, and that would not suit me or my position at all.”
Eleanor drew back. Her education had not been extensive following her mother’s death, but she had always read to improve her mind. “You cannot mean that you disapprove of female education?”
“Of course not. A ready knowledge of arithmetic is surely a useful acquirement for those who are to regulate the expenses of a family, although not to the ridiculous point that Mr Brampton seems to take it.”
She ignored his slight on Philip’s brilliance. “I mean of women having real knowledge and intelligence.”
He narrowed his eyes. “So long as you do not mean an affectation in showing knowledge in an attempt to shame a man?”
“Not at all, Sir Charles,” Eleanor cried, insulted by the idea.Perhaps he was insecure of his own intelligence. “I mean education about science, literature, history, about manners and cultures. Women might not have the same opportunities as do men, but you cannot want a silly wife.”
