The Convenient Marriage Read Free

'Oh, Edward, the worst!' she whispered.
    He grew paler. 'Your note alarmed me. Good God, what is it?'
    Miss Winwood pressed her handkerchief to her mouth. 'Lord Rule was with Mama yesterday - in this very room.' She raised her eyes imploringly to his face. 'Edward, it is all at an end. Lord Rule has offered for my hand.'
    A dreadful stillness fell in the shadowed room. Miss Winwood stood with bowed head before Mr Heron, leaning a little on the chair-back.
    Mr Heron did not move, but presently he said rather hoarsely: 'And you said—?' But it was hardly a question; he spoke it mechanically, knowing what she must have said.
    She made a hopeless gesture- 'What can I say? You know so well how it is with us.'
    He took a step away from her, and began to pace up and down the room. 'Rule!' he said. 'Is he very rich?'
    'Very rich,' replied Elizabeth desolately.
    Words crowded in Mr Heron's throat, hurt, angry, passionate words, yet not one of them could he utter. Life had dealt him her cruellest blow, and all that he could find to say, and that in a numb voice which did not seem to belong to him, was: 'I see.' He perceived that Elizabeth was silently weeping, and at once came to her, and took her hands, and drew her to a couch. 'Oh, my love, don't cry!' he said, a catch in his own voice. 'Perhaps it is not too late: we can contrive something - we must contrive something!' But he spoke without conviction, for he knew that he would never have anything to set against Rule's fortune. He put his arms round Elizabeth, and laid his cheek against her curls while her tears fell on his gay scarlet coat.
    After a little while she drew herself away. 'I am making you unhappy too,' she said.
    At that he went down on his knee beside her, and hid his face in her hands. She did not make any effort to pull them away, but said only: 'Mama has been so kind. I am permitted to tell you myself. It is - it must be goodbye, Edward. I have not the strength to continue seeing you. Oh, is it wrong of me to say that I shall have you in my heart always—always?'
    'I cannot let you go!' he said with suppressed violence. 'All our hopes - our plans - Elizabeth, Elizabeth!'
    She did not speak, and presently he raised his face, flushed now and haggard. 'What can I do? Is there nothing?'
    She touched the couch beside her. 'Do you think I have not tried to think of something?' she said sadly. 'Alas, did we not feel always that ours was nothing but a dream, impossible to realize?'
    He sat down again, leaning his arm on his knee, and looking down at his own neat boot. 'It's your brother,' he said. 'Debts.'
    She nodded. 'Mama told me so much that I did not know. It is worse than I imagined. Everything is mortgaged, and there are Charlotte and Horatia to think for. Pelham has lost five thousand guineas at a sitting in Paris.'
    'Does Pelham never win?' demanded Mr Heron despairingly.
    'I don't know,' she replied. 'He says he is very unlucky.'
    He looked up. 'Elizabeth, if it hurts you I am sorry, but that you should be sacrificed to Pelham's selfish, thoughtless—'
    'Oh, hush!' she begged. 'You know the Fatal Tendency in us Winwoods. Pelham cannot help it. My father even! When Pelham came into his inheritance he found it already wasted. Mama explained it all to me. She is so very sorry, Edward. We have mingled our tears. But she thinks, and how can I not feel the truth of it, that it is my Duty to the Family to accept of Lord Rule's offer.'
    'Rule!' he said bitterly. 'A man fifteen years your senior! a man of his reputation. He has only to throw his glove at your feet, and you - Oh God, I cannot bear to think of it!' His writhing fingers created havoc amongst his pomaded curls. 'Why must his choice light upon you?' he groaned. 'Are there not others enough?'
    'I think,' she said diffidently, 'that he wishes to ally himself with our Family. They say he is very proud, and our name is - is also a proud one.' She hesitated, and said, colouring: 'It is to be a marriage of