‘Oh yes, I do,’ said Sir Richard, with a curl of the lips.
‘MustGeorge be vulgar?’ asked Lady Wyndham tragically.
‘Be quiet, George! And as for you, Richard, I consider it in the highest degree nonsensical for you to take up that attitude. There is no denying that you’re the biggest catch on the Marriage Mart – Yes, Mama, that is vulgar too, and I beg your pardon – but you have a lower opinion of yourself than I credit you with if you can suppose that your fortune is the only thing about you which makes you a desirableparti.You are generally accounted handsome – indeed, no one, I believe, could deny that your person is such as must please; and when you will take the trouble to be conciliating there is nothing in your manners to disgust the nicest taste.’
‘This encomium, Louisa, almost unmans me,’ said Sir Richard, much moved.
‘I am perfectly serious. I was about to add that you often spoil everything by your odd humours. I do not know how you should expect to engage a female’s affection when you never bestow the least distinguishing notice upon any woman! I do not say that you are uncivil, but there is a languor, a reserve in your manner, which must repel a woman of sensibility.’
‘I am a hopeless case indeed,’ said Sir Richard.
‘If you want to know what I think, which I do not suppose you do, so you need not tell me so, it is that you are spoilt, Richard. You have too much money, you have done everything you wished to do before you are out of your twenties; you have been courted by match-making Mamas, fawned on by toadies, andindulged by all the world. The end of it is that you are bored to death. There! I have said it, and though you may not thank me for it, you will admit that I am right.’
‘Quite right,’ agreed Sir Richard. ‘Hideously right, Louisa!’
She got up. ‘Well, I advise you to get married and settle down. Come, Mama! We have said all we meant to say, and you know we are to call in Brook Street on our way home. George, do you mean to come with us?’
‘No,’ said George. ‘Not to call in Brook Street. I daresay I shall stroll up to White’s presently.’
‘Just as you please, my love,’ said Louisa, drawing on her gloves again.
When the ladies had been escorted to the waiting barouche, George did not at once set out for his club, but accompanied his brother-in-law back into the house. He preserved a sympathetic silence until they were out of earshot of the servants, but caught Sir Richard’s eye then, in a very pregnant look, and uttered the one word: ‘Women!’
‘Quite so,’ said Sir Richard.
‘Do you know what I’d do if I were you, my boy?’
‘Yes,’ said Sir Richard.
George was disconcerted. ‘Damn it, you can’t know!’
‘You would do precisely what I shall do.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Oh – offer for Melissa Brandon, of course,’ said Sir Richard.
‘Well, I wouldn’t,’ said George positively. ‘I wouldn’t marry Melissa Brandon for fifty sisters! I’d find a cosier armful, ’pon my soul I would!’
‘The cosiest armful of my acquaintance was never so cosy as when she wanted to see my purse-strings untied,’ said Sir Richard cynically.
George shook his head. ‘Bad, very bad! I must say, it’s enough to sour any man. But Louisa’s right, you know: you ought to get married. Won’t do to let the name die out.’ An idea occurred to him. ‘You wouldn’t care to put it about that you’d lost all your money, I suppose?’
‘No,’ said Sir Richard, ‘I wouldn’t.’
‘I read somewhere of a fellow who went off to some place where he wasn’t known. Devil of a fellow he was: some kind of a foreign Count, I think. I don’t remember precisely, but there was a girl in it, who fell in love with him for his own sake.’
‘There would be,’ said Sir Richard.
‘You don’t like it?’ George rubbed his nose, a little crestfallen. ‘Well, damme if I know what to suggest!’
He was still pondering the matter when the butler announced Mr Wyndham, and a large, portly, and convivial-looking gentleman rolled into the room, ejaculating cheerfully: ‘Hallo, George! You here? Ricky, my boy, your mother’s been at me again, confound her! Made me promise I’d come round to see you, though what the devil she thinks I can do is beyond me!’
‘Spare me!’ said Sir Richard wearily. ‘I have already sustained a visit from my mother, not to mention Louisa.’
‘Well, I’m sorry for you, my boy, and if you take my advice you’ll marry that Brandon wench, and be done with it. What’s that you have there? Madeira? I’ll take a glass.’
Sir Richard gave him one. He lowered his bulk into a large armchair, stretched his legs out before him, and raised the glass. ‘Here’s a health to the bridegroom!’ he said, with a chuckle. ‘Don’t look so glum, nevvy! Think of the joy you’ll be bringing into Saar’s life!’
