Джорджетт Хейер: The Foundling

The Duke looked up, startled. “My marriage, sir!”

“There is nothing to be surprised about in that, surely!” said Lord Lionel. “It is not, I fancy, unknown to you that I have already made certain arrangements on your behalf. I do not believe in making a secret of a very ordinary business, and since I am quite as much concerned with the question of your future comfort and happiness as with the very important one of securing the succession, I have been careful to choose for you a bride who will bring you, besides the necessary advantages of birth and fortune, a reasonable chance of harmony in your future life. In this, I hope you will realize, my boy, that I have had all these modern notions with which I make no doubt you are imbued in my head. You are not to suppose that my mind was irrevocably fixed upon the first and most obvious choice. I have had several young females in my eye, but I believe they will not do for you, and it is now some years since I have entertained any other idea than that you should, as soon as you had come of full age, marry Lady Harriet Presteigne.”

The Duke got up suddenly, and said in some little agitation: “Yes—no! It had not been unknown to me. But the succession cannot be in danger, sir, while my cousin Gideon and, indeed, my Uncle Henry’s five sons—”

“Do not talk to me of your Uncle Henry’s sons!” commanded Lord Lionel wrathfully. “If they are all to take after the eldest of them, who, I am hearing, is for ever in some disgraceful scrape, as I have very little doubt they will do, for what can one expect, if a man will marry a Methodist?—I can only say that I am astonished you should entertain the notion of seeing one of them here in your shoes for as much as a moment!”

“But I should not see them in my shoes,” pointed out the Duke reasonably. “And really, you know, sir, Mart’sscrapes cannot be called disgraceful! And in any event I am sure that Gideon would fill my shoes far better than I could ever do. Surely—”

“You may put that out of your head once and for all!” said Lord Lionel, in his sternest voice. “Understand me, Gilly, I have never thought to see my son in your place, and nothing could more distress me than the knowledge that it must come to that in the end! I venture to say that Gideon shares my sentiments to the full. I do not know what cause he can have given you to suppose—”

“None! Oh, none!” Gilly said hurriedly. “I only meant—I only wished to say that it cannot be thought necessary for me to marry so soon!”

“So soon?” repeated his uncle, raising his brows. “My dear boy, it has been an understood thing between myself and Ampleforth any time these five years! I make no doubt the young lady herself is fully aware of it, for her mother is a woman of great good sense, and will have made it her business to prepare the girl for the position she is destined to occupy.”

“You think that Harriet herself knows of it?” the Duke said, in a stunned voice.

“Certainly. Why should she not?” replied his uncle. “If you have some romantic notion in your head, I advise you to rid yourself of it, boy. Romantic notions do very well in a trashy novel, and I daresay they may not come amiss amongst the lesser ranks of society, but they are not for persons of our order, and that you may depend upon. Yes, yes, you think me very unfeeling, I daresay, but you may believe me when I tell you that I have seen more unhappiness arising out of a so-called love-match than from any other cause in this world. I dare swear you, at twenty-four and with your head full of nonsense, have not half as much idea of what will suit you as I have. But don’t imagine, Gilly, that I would tie you up to someone for whom you feel the least degree of dislike! You cannot have failed to notice that your aunt and I have taken every opportunity of inviting the Ampleforths to Sale. I have encouraged you to visit them, and you have not been backward in accepting invitations to Ampleforth. I have made it my business to observe you narrowly, and I own that I shall be surprised to learn that you are wholly indifferent to Lady Harriet.”

The Duke grasped the back of a chair. He looked even paler than was natural in him, and acutely unhappy. “No, indeed! I have the greatest regard—She has always been most amiable—But marriage—!”

“Come, Gilly!” said Lord Lionel, a little impatiently, “you do not mean to tell me that you had never considered the question! You knew very well that the matter was arranged!”

“Yes,” the Duke said, in a hollow tone. “Yes, I did know. Only I hoped—I thought—”

“Well, and what did you think and hope?”

“I don’t know,” said the Duke helplessly. “Only that perhaps something would occur—or some other man offer—or—or that it might not be quite yet!”

His uncle looked shrewdly at him. “Have you a tendre for some other female, Gilly?” he asked.

The Duke shook his head.

“Well, I thought you had not, for you have never been in the petticoat-line, but you need not scruple to tell me so if I have been mistaken.” He waited, but the Duke only shook his head again. “Then what is the matter? Be open with me, I beg of you!”

The Duke took out his handkerchief, and pressed it to his lips. “I hardly know. I do not mean to say anything in Harriet’s disparagement! I have always been excessively attached to her, ever since we were children. She is everything that is amiable and obliging. Indeed, she is all compliance and good-nature, and is very pretty besides, but—but I had thought that when I came to marry I should choose awife for myself, a lady for whom I felt—with whom I might be in love, sir!”

“Oho! Here is a high flight!” said his uncle, rather amused. “And where is this fine lady?”

“I have not met one. I—”

“I am happy to hear it, for if any one thing is more to be depended on than another is that she would be quite ineligible! We have all our youthful fancies, Gilly, but it will not answer to be fashioning our lives on them. Now, you are not a schoolboy. You have been about the world a little: I took care that you should do so. You have been presented at Court, you have taken your seat in the House, you have travelled, you have had a season in London. Had you formed an attachment for some female it would not have surprised me in the least, and had your affections become fixed upon an eligible object you would not have found me unreasonable. But although you have met any number of young females of ton, none has succeeded in capturing your fancy. I do not feel that in urging you to come to the point with Ampleforth I am tying you up in matrimony before you have had time to know your own mind.”

“Do you mean that I shall never feel a—a stronger degree of attachment for a female than—than—”

“My dear Gilly, this is being foolish without permission! In plain terms, the sort of passion you have in mind has little to do with marriage. I grant that to be obliged to live with a woman whom you held in aversion would be a sad fate, but we need not consider that. You own that you are not indifferent to Lady Harriet. For a female, I believe her to have a superior understanding. Her disposition is amiable, and if you mean to object that there is a want of spirits in her I would point out to you that you have very odd humours yourself, and would find less rational comfort with a woman of more vivacity than with a quiet girl who would, I am persuaded, partake of many of your sentiments, and study to please you.”

“Oh, yes, yes!” interrupted Gilly. “But—”

Lord Lionel held up his hand. “No, listen to what I have to say to you, my boy! You think I do not enter into your feelings upon this occasion, but you are mistaken. I shall be plain with you. In Lady Harriet you will not find yourself saddled with a wife who will expect more from you than you are inclined to give. She is a very well brought-up girl; and while, on the one hand, I am satisfied that she will conduct herself, as Duchess of Sale, with propriety and discretion, she will not expect you to be always at her side. If you choose to mount a mistress, she will know how to look the other way, and you will not be obliged to face the reproaches which might be levelled at you by a woman of lesser breeding. In short, you may be assured of a well-conducted household with an amiable woman at its head, and may indulge what romantic fancies you please out of it.”