such an offer, that is not the case!”
“Come, come, let ’ s have no quibbling!” said her suitor, a little testily. “You must be aware that it was to dear Lady Emberley I spoke!”
“Yes, Mr. Spalding.” Elinor compressed her lips as she cast her mind back to the very disagreeable scene with Lady Emberley that had followed. “And she spoke to me, and I told her, you know, that should you be obliging enough to make me the offer she foresaw, I could only decline it, though with the deepest sense of — of the honour you did me, and with a true appreciation of your worth!”
“Just so, just so, and very right too while your benefactress was still alive! But, with her customary acuteness and foresight, it was of the future that Lady Emberley was thinking. Why, I owe it to her to unite my lot with yours!” he exclaimed, rather unfortunately.
“ Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doon ... ” w arbled Persephone ’ s remarkable soprano in the next room. It caught his attention once again, and once again Elinor seized her opportunity to speak.
“I do appreciate your feelings, Mr. Spalding,” said she, with what Sir Edmund thought commendable restraint. “But your mind may be quite easy now! You have done all that Lady Emberley coul d have expected of you. And if, as it seems, plain speaking is to be the order of the day — well, Sir Edmund, you see that you may be easy in your mind too, since your cousin had a very respectable future planned for me, and it ’ s entirely my own fault if I felt I could not comply with her wishes!” The glint of humour was back in her eyes as she looked from one gentleman to the other. “Besides, you know, Mr. Spalding, I shouldn ’ t make a good wife for a clergyman. There are many who would suit you far better — think, for instance, of Miss Dunn.” For a moment, Mr. Spalding looked much struck by the suggestion. “I feel sure,” she pursued, “that before long you will be very much relieved I have refused your obliging offer!”
The one he hasn ’ t even made her yet, thought Sir Edmund, who was having some difficulty in preserving his own gravity, and found the task even harder when Mr. Spalding rejoined, apparently with genuine indignation, “Not at all! I own, I have sometimes wondered if Miss Dunn ... but no! Miss Dunn is all very well, all very well in her way, but I am persuaded that you too would make me an excellent wife, accustomed as you are to habits of thrift and economy, and full as you must ever be of a sense of obligation to those ready, in a spirit of true forgiveness, to overlook the past!”
“We will not say any more upon that head, if you please,” said Miss Radley, her amusement entirely swept away again.
But Mr. Spalding in full spate was not readily to be halted. “For now that there is inculcated in you, as I do sincerely believe and trust, a salutory understanding of the inevitable consequences of deviation from the right way, I need have no apprehension as to your ever conducting yourself with the least impropriety, or other than as befits the wife of a man of the cloth! I have upon occasion, I freely admit, observed a certain frivolity in you, but once that is checked, I am persuaded you will enter into the state of matrimony in a truly fitting spirit. And consider,” he said, as one producing a final and irrefutable argument, “that henceforth you will have at your side a husband, able to direct and advise you in all that you do. The benefits of that , to a woman, cannot, I believe, be over-estimated!” he concluded with great satisfaction.
Sir Edmund was here obliged to turn his head aside and devote his whole attention to a goldfinch perched on a bough just coming into leaf outside the window, lest his unseemly grin of amusement be seen by his companions.
There was little enough amusement in Miss Radley ’ s own face as she said, rather wearily, “Well, I see it must be plain speaking indeed! Mr. Spalding, pray believe that I
“Come, come, let ’ s have no quibbling!” said her suitor, a little testily. “You must be aware that it was to dear Lady Emberley I spoke!”
“Yes, Mr. Spalding.” Elinor compressed her lips as she cast her mind back to the very disagreeable scene with Lady Emberley that had followed. “And she spoke to me, and I told her, you know, that should you be obliging enough to make me the offer she foresaw, I could only decline it, though with the deepest sense of — of the honour you did me, and with a true appreciation of your worth!”
“Just so, just so, and very right too while your benefactress was still alive! But, with her customary acuteness and foresight, it was of the future that Lady Emberley was thinking. Why, I owe it to her to unite my lot with yours!” he exclaimed, rather unfortunately.
“ Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doon ... ” w arbled Persephone ’ s remarkable soprano in the next room. It caught his attention once again, and once again Elinor seized her opportunity to speak.
“I do appreciate your feelings, Mr. Spalding,” said she, with what Sir Edmund thought commendable restraint. “But your mind may be quite easy now! You have done all that Lady Emberley coul d have expected of you. And if, as it seems, plain speaking is to be the order of the day — well, Sir Edmund, you see that you may be easy in your mind too, since your cousin had a very respectable future planned for me, and it ’ s entirely my own fault if I felt I could not comply with her wishes!” The glint of humour was back in her eyes as she looked from one gentleman to the other. “Besides, you know, Mr. Spalding, I shouldn ’ t make a good wife for a clergyman. There are many who would suit you far better — think, for instance, of Miss Dunn.” For a moment, Mr. Spalding looked much struck by the suggestion. “I feel sure,” she pursued, “that before long you will be very much relieved I have refused your obliging offer!”
The one he hasn ’ t even made her yet, thought Sir Edmund, who was having some difficulty in preserving his own gravity, and found the task even harder when Mr. Spalding rejoined, apparently with genuine indignation, “Not at all! I own, I have sometimes wondered if Miss Dunn ... but no! Miss Dunn is all very well, all very well in her way, but I am persuaded that you too would make me an excellent wife, accustomed as you are to habits of thrift and economy, and full as you must ever be of a sense of obligation to those ready, in a spirit of true forgiveness, to overlook the past!”
“We will not say any more upon that head, if you please,” said Miss Radley, her amusement entirely swept away again.
But Mr. Spalding in full spate was not readily to be halted. “For now that there is inculcated in you, as I do sincerely believe and trust, a salutory understanding of the inevitable consequences of deviation from the right way, I need have no apprehension as to your ever conducting yourself with the least impropriety, or other than as befits the wife of a man of the cloth! I have upon occasion, I freely admit, observed a certain frivolity in you, but once that is checked, I am persuaded you will enter into the state of matrimony in a truly fitting spirit. And consider,” he said, as one producing a final and irrefutable argument, “that henceforth you will have at your side a husband, able to direct and advise you in all that you do. The benefits of that , to a woman, cannot, I believe, be over-estimated!” he concluded with great satisfaction.
Sir Edmund was here obliged to turn his head aside and devote his whole attention to a goldfinch perched on a bough just coming into leaf outside the window, lest his unseemly grin of amusement be seen by his companions.
There was little enough amusement in Miss Radley ’ s own face as she said, rather wearily, “Well, I see it must be plain speaking indeed! Mr. Spalding, pray believe that I
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