When she and Hero were once more seated in the barouche, taking a turn about the town before going back to Camden Place, she said with the forthrightness which made her rather disconcerting: ‘Now, my love, I should be glad if you will inform me what you mean to do next?’
Hero shook her head hopelessly.
‘You don’t know. Nothing could be more disastrous! But perhaps you know whether or not you are willing tamely to relinquish your husband to this Beauty I hear so much about?’
Hero turned her face away, and stared blindly out of the window. ‘Oh, ma’am, pray do not ask me! I have – I have suchwickedthoughts of poor Isabella!’
‘Excellent! I am happy to perceive that there is some spirit in you! Well, let me tell you, my child, that if you mean to make a push to keep Anthony you should show yourself very well able to do without him. Do not be making sheep’s eyes at him, andbegging his pardon for having taken exception to his overbearing ways!Youare the injured one, remember! and –’
‘No, ma’am, indeed I am not!’ Hero said earnestly. ‘It was all my fault for being so –’
‘Do not interrupt me! I repeat, it is you who are injured, and if ever you hope to have the mastery over Anthony –’
‘But, ma’am, you are quite mistaken!’ Hero assured her. ‘I never thought of such a thing! I only want to make him happy, and not to be such a tiresome wife!’
‘You are besotted!’ said her ladyship. ‘I have a very good mind to wash my hands of you! Only want to make him happy indeed! Yes! And if it would make him happy to divorce you and marry this Milborne chit, you will help him to do it, I dare say!’
Hero thought this over. ‘No, I won’t!’ she said suddenly. ‘If Isabella loved Sherry, I would try my best not to be selfish, but she doesn’t love him, and if she is encouraging him now to follow her about in this odious way, it is just because Severn didnotcome up to scratch, whatever she may have told Sherry! And I know all the gentlemen who would like to marry Isabella, and Sherry is by far the most eligible, now that Severn is out of the running – or he would be, if I did not exist – and he shallnotbe sacrificed to Isabella’s horrid ambition!’
Lady Saltash’s eyes narrowed in amusement. ‘Now you are beginning to talk like a sensible woman!’ she said. ‘And pray how do you mean to rescue him from this designing beauty’s toils?’
‘Well, I don’t know,’ Hero confessed. ‘Of course, if I were to return to Sherry, she couldn’t marry him, could she? But I do not at all know that he wants me: in fact, I have a great fear that he does not; and so that would not make him happy in the least. And, oh, dear, ma’am, when I recall how lovely Isabella is, besides being an heiress, and so well bred, and never doing the wrong thing, and in every respect all that a wife should be, I can’t conceive how Sherry’s affections could fail to reanimate towards her!’
‘It is my belief,’ responded her ladyship calmly, ‘that Sherry never had the smallest real affection for her. Very pretty all this talk of his having married you in a fit of pique! I am reading of such things for ever in trashy novels, but in all the course of my life I have not yet observed it to happen! A man whose affections had been seriously engaged would not have relinquished his suit as easily as Sherry seems to have done, my dear, depend upon it! The truth is that he was not in love with either of you. What his sentiments may now be I do not pretend to say, but it is in the nature of nine men out of ten that what may be theirs for the picking up they are much inclined to despise, and what seems to be out of reach they instantly and fervently desire. Now, you do not know whether Anthony loves you or not, and very likely he does not know either. Drop into his hands like a ripe plum, and I dare say you may never know, for I do him the justice to assume that he would receive you again with a good grace. He was never a bad-natured boy: indeed, I used to think he had a great deal of sweetness in his disposition, would someone but encourage him to show it! If you wish to know how you stand with him, let him think that you have no particular desire to return to him! If he wants you, he will move heaven and earth to win you; if he does not – well, then you may make him happy in whatever foolish fashion you choose!’
Hero, who had listened to this with the greatest attention, turned it over in her mind before replying. She said slowly, at last: ‘It will be very hard, but perhaps, in the end, it would be for the best. I do understand what you mean, dear ma’am. Only, when George told me that he was coming here, I thought – I could not help but thinking that it was because some chance had informed him that I was with you. And I could not help indulging the hope that he did love me after all.’
‘Yes, my dear,’ agreed her ladyship, with a certain amount of dryness. ‘That would have put quite another complexion on theaffair. But it does not appear that he has the least notion of your being with me.’
‘No,’ Hero said sadly.
Lady Saltash left it at that. Shortly after noon, Mr Tarleton came to Camden Place by appointment, in his curricle, and took Hero up for a drive to Kelston. It struck him that she wore rather a sober face, and he rallied her on it, accusing her of finding Bath a tedious place and himself a great bore.
‘Oh, no, that I certainly do not!’ she said quickly.
‘I am persuaded you think me a dull dog, with one foot in the grave, and not a spark of romantic fervour in my whole composition!’
She laughed. ‘No, how should I be so foolish? I dare say you could be excessively romantic, if you wished to be, and as for having one foot in the grave, pooh!’
‘But I fancy you did think so, when first we met?’ he said quizzically.
She coloured. ‘Yes, it is true, but that was before I became properly acquainted with you.’
‘Tell me, Miss Wantage, do you consider me past the age of thinking of marriage?’
She looked up. ‘No, indeed! Why, have you some such notion?’
‘Yes,’ he replied.
Her dimples peeped. ‘Then, of course, you must become romantic, Mr Tarleton! Females are so silly, you know, that they much prefer romance to solid worth!’
He pulled a grimace. ‘Solid worth! Of all abominable phrases! Do you remember telling me once that you thought runaway marriages the best? Are you still of the same mind?’
She stifled a sigh. ‘Yes. That is, it is the only kind of marriage for me. I do not think it would suit you, however! Do you think I shall ever be able to drive a team, Mr Tarleton?’
‘Yes. I would willingly teach you.’
‘I never met anyone I dealt with so extremely as you!’ she said, laughing. ‘But I am sure I should not be allowed to! I expect it is not the thing at all.’
