第210章

'Or him; and it is in that feeling that I find my chief satisfaction,--that he should have the sense to have liked such a one as you better than others. Now I have said it. As not being one of us I did at first object to his choice. As being what you are yourself, I am altogether reconciled to it. Do not keep him long waiting.'

'I do not think he likes being kept waiting for anything.'

'I dare say not. I dare say not. And how there is one thing else.'

Then the Duke unlocked a little drawer that was close to his hand, and taking out a ring put it on her finger. It was a bar of diamonds, perhaps a dozen or them, fixed in a little circlet of gold. 'This must never leave you,' he said.

'It never shall,--having come from you.'

'It was the first present that I gave to my wife, and it is the first that I shall give to you. You may imagine how sacred it is to me. On no other hand could it be worn without something which to me would be akin to sacrilege. Now I must not keep you longer or Silverbridge will be storming about the house. He of course will tell me when it is to be; but do not you keep him long waiting.' Then he kissed her and led her up into the drawing-room. When he had spoken a word of greeting to Mrs Boncassen, he left them to their own devices.

After that they spent the best part of an hour in going over the house; but even that was done in a manner unsatisfactory to Silverbridge. Wherever Isabel went, there Mrs Boncassen went also.

There might have been some fun in showing even the back kitchens to his bride-elect by herself;--but there was one in wandering about those vast underground regions with a stout old lady who was really interested with the cooking apparatus and the washhouses.

The bedrooms one after another became tedious to him when Mrs Boncassen would make communications respecting each of them to her daughter. 'That is Gerald's room,' said Silverbridge. 'You have never seen Gerald. He is such a brick.' Mrs Boncassen was charmed with the whips and sticks and boxing-gloves in Gerald's room, and expressed an opinion that young men in the States mostly carried their knickknacks about with them to the Universities. When she was told that he had another collection of 'knickknacks' at Matching, and another at Oxford, she thought that he was a very extravagant young man. Isabel who had heard all about the gambling in Scotland, looked round her lover and smiled.

'Well, my dear,' said Mrs Boncassen, as they took their leave, 'it is a very grand house, and I hope with all my heart you may have your health there and be happy. But I don't know that you'll be any happier because it's so big.'

'Wait till you see Gatherum,' said Silverbridge. 'That, I own, does make me unhappy. It has been calculated that three months at Gatherum Castle would drive a philosopher mad.'

In all this there had been a certain amount of disappointment for Silverbridge; but on that evening, before dinner in Brook Street, he received compensation. As the day was one somewhat peculiar in its nature he decided that it should be kept together as a holiday, and he did not therefore go down to the House. And not going to the House of course he spent the time with the Boncassens. 'You know you ought to go,' Isabel said to him when the found themselves alone together in the back drawing-room.

'Of course I ought.'

'Then go. Do you think I would keep a Briton from his duties?'

'Not though the constitution should fall in ruins. Do you suppose that a man wants no rest after inspecting all the pots and pans in that establishment? A woman, I believe, could go on doing that kind of thing all day long.'

'You should remember at least that the--woman was interesting herself about your pots and pans.'

'And now, Bella, tell me what the governor said to you.' Then she showed him the ring. 'Did he give you that?' She nodded her head in assent. 'I did not think he would ever part with that.'

'It was your mother's.'

'She wore it always. I almost think that I never saw her hand without it. He would not have given you that unless he had meant to be very good to you.'

'He was very good to me, Silverbridge, I have a great deal to do, to learn to be your wife.''

'I'll teach you.'

'Yes; you will teach me. But will you teach me right? There is something almost awful in your father's serious dignity and solemn appreciation of the responsibilities of his position. Will you ever come to that?'

'I shall never be a great man as he is.'

'It seem to me that life to him is a load;--which he does not object to carry, but which he knows must be carried with a great struggle.'

'I suppose it ought to be so with everyone.'

'Yes,' she said, 'but the higher you put your foot on the ladder the more constant should be your thought that your stepping requires care. I fear that I am climbing too high.'

'You can't come down now, young woman.'

'I have to go on now,--and do the best I can. I will try to do my best. I will try to do my best. I told him so, and now I tell you so. I will try to do my best.'

'Perhaps after all I am only a "pert poppet",' she said half an hour afterwards, for Silverbridge had told her of the terrible mistake made by poor Dolly Longstaff.

'Brute!' he exclaimed.

'Not at all. And when we are settled down in the real Darby-and-Joan way I shall hope to see Mr Longstaff very often. I daresay he won't call me a pert poppet, and I shall not remind him of the word. But I shall always think of it; and remembering the way in which my character struck an educated Englishman,--who was not altogether ill-disposed towards me,--I may hope to improve myself.'