Джорджетт Хейер - The Convenient Marriage

Lady Winwood being denied, the morning caller inquired with some anxiety for Miss Winwood, or, in fact, for any of the young ladies. In face of the rumour which had come to her ears it would be too provoking if all the Winwood ladies were to withhold themselves. But the porter held the door fully open and said that Miss Winwood was at home.

Directing the coachman of her extremely smart town carriage to wait for her, Mrs Maulfrey stepped into the dim hall, and said briskly: “Where is Miss Winwood? You need not be at the trouble of announcing me.”

All the young ladies, it seemed, were in the small saloon, Mrs Maulfrey nodded, and walked across the hall with a click of her high heels. As she ascended the stairs her armazine skirts, spread over very large paniers a coudes, brushed the banisters on either side of her. She reflected, not for the first time, that the stairway was too narrow, and the carpet positively shabby. She would be ashamed for her part of such old-fashioned furnishings; but although she claimed cousinship, she was not, she admitted to herself, a Winwood of Winwood.

The small saloon, by which name the porter designated a back sitting-room given over to the use of the young ladies, lay up one pair of stairs, and was well known to Mrs Maulfrey. She tapped with her gloved hand on one of the panels of the door, and entered on the echo of her knock.

The three Misses Winwood were grouped by the window, presenting an artless and agreeable picture. Upon a faded yellow satin sopha sat Miss Winwood and Miss Charlotte their arms entwined about each other’s waists. They were much alike, but Miss Winwood was held to be the greater beauty. Her classic profile was turned to the door, but upon Mrs Maulfrey’s rustling entrance she looked round and displayed to the visitor a pair of melting blue eyes and a sweet, arched mouth that formed at the moment an O of mild surprise. A quantity of fair curls dressed without powder and threaded by a blue riband framed her face and tumbled on to her shoulders in several ordered locks.

Miss Charlotte was not seen to advantage beside the Beauty of the Family, but she was a true Winwood, with the famous straight nose and the same blue eyes. Her curls, not quite so fair as her sisters, owed their existence to hot irons, her eyes were of a shallower blue, and her colouring inclined towards the sallow; but she was allowed to be a very well-looking young lady.

Miss Horatia, the youngest of the three, had nothing that declared her lineage except her nose. Her hair was dark, her eyes a profound grey, and her brows, nearly black and rather thick, were quite straight, and gave her a serious, almost frowning, expression. No amount of careful training would induce an arch in them. She was quite half a head shorter than her sisters, and, at the age of seventeen, was obliged regretfully to admit that she was not likely to grow any taller.

When Mrs Maulfrey came into the room Horatia was seated on a low stool by the sopha, propping her chin in her hands, and scowling dreadfully. Or perhaps, thought Mrs Maulfrey, that was just a trick of those preposterous eyebrows.

All three sisters wore morning toilets of worked muslin over slight hoops, with tiffany sashes round their waists. Countrified, thought Mrs Maulfrey, giving her fringed silk mantle a satisfied twitch.

“My dears!” she exclaimed. “I came the instant I heard! Tell me at once, is it true? Has Rule offered?”

Miss Winwood, who had risen gracefully to receive her cousin, seemed to droop and to grow pale. “Yes,” she said faintly. “Alas, it is quite true, Theresa.”

Mrs Maulfrey’s eyes grew round with respect. “Oh, Lizzie!” she breathed. “Rule! A Countess! Twenty thousand a year, I have heard, and I daresay it may be found to be more!”

Miss Charlotte set a chair for her, observing with a reproving note in her voice: “We believe Lord Rule to be a most eligible gentleman. Though no one,” she added, clasping Miss Winwood’s hand tenderly, “however genteel, could be worthy of ourdearest Lizzie!”

“Lord, Charlotte!” said Mrs Maulfrey tartly, “Rule’s the biggest prize in the market, and you know it. It is the most amazing piece of good fortune ever I heard. Though I will say, Lizzie, you deserve it. Yes, you do, and I am quite enchanted for you. Only to think of the Settlements!”

“I find the thought of Settlements particularly indelicate, Theresa,”said Miss Charlotte. “Mama will no doubt arrange with Lord Rule, but Lizzie cannot be supposed to concern herself with such sordid questions as the size of Lord Rule’s fortune.”

The youngest Miss Winwood, who all the time had continued to sit with her chin in her hands, suddenly raised her head and delivered herself of one shattering word. “S-stuff!” she said, in a deep little voice that just quivered on a stammer.

Miss Charlotte looked pained; Miss Winwood gave a rather wan smile. “Indeed, I fear Horry is in the right,” she said sadly. “It is just the Fortune.” She sank on to the sopha again, and gazed fixedly out of the window.

Mrs Maulfrey became aware that the steady blue eyes were swimming in tears. “Why, Lizzie!” she said. “One would think you had had dark tidings instead of a splendid offer!”

“Theresa!” intoned Miss Charlotte, putting both arms about her sister. “Is this worthy of you? Can it be that you have forgotten Mr Heron?”

Mrs Maulfrey had forgotten Mr Heron. Her jaw dropped slightly, but she recovered in a moment. “To be sure: Mr Heron,” she said. “It is very afflicting, but—Rule, you know! I don’t say poor Mr Heron is not a very estimable creature, but a mere lieutenant, dearest Lizzie, and I daresay will soon have to go back to that horrid war in America—it’s not to be thought of, my love!”

“No,” said Elizabeth in a suffocated voice. “Not to be thought of.”

Horatia’s dark gaze dwelled bodingly on her second sister. “I think it would be a very good thing if Charlotte were to have R-Rule,” she pronounced.

“Horry!” gasped Charlotte.

“Lord, my dear, what things you say!” remarked Mrs Maulfrey indulgently. “It’s Elizabeth Rule wants.”

Horatia shook her head vehemently. “No. Only a Winwood,” she said in the tense way she had. “All arranged years ago. I d-don’t believe he’s set eyes on L-Lizzie upwards of half a d-dozen times. It can’t signify.”

Miss Charlotte released her sister’s hand, and said palpitatingly: “Nothing—nothing would induce me to marry Lord Rule, even if he had offered for me! The very notion of Matrimony is repugnant to me. I have long made up my mind to be a Prop to Mama.” She drew a breath. “If ever any gentleman could induce me to contemplate the Married State, I assure you, my dear Horry, it would be one far other than Lord Rule.”

Mrs Maulfrey had no difficulty in interpreting this announcement.”For my part, I like a rake,” she observed. “And Rule is so extremely handsome!”

“I think,” said Horatia obstinately, “that M-Mama might have suggested Charlotte.”

Elizabeth turned her head: “You don’t understand, Horry dear. Mama could not do such an odd thing.”

“Does my Aunt force you to it, Lizzie?” inquired Mrs Maulfrey, pleasantly intrigued.

“Oh no, no!” Elizabeth replied earnestly. “You know Mama’s tenderness. She is all consideration, all sensibility! It is only my own consciousness of my Duty to the Family that leads me to take a step so—so disastrous to my happiness.”

“M-mortgages,” said Horatia cryptically.

“Pelham, I suppose?” said Mrs Maulfrey.

“Of course it is Pelham,” replied Charlotte with a touch of bitterness. “Everything is his fault. Ruin stares us in the face.”

“Poor Pelham!” Elizabeth said, with a sigh for her absent brother. “I am afraid he is very extravagant.”

“It’s his gambling debts, I take it,” opined Mrs Maulfrey. “My Aunt seemed to think that even your Portions ...” She left the sentence delicately unfinished.

Elizabeth flushed, but Horatia said: “You can’t blame P-Pel. It’s in the blood. One of us must m-marry Rule. Lizzie’s the eldest and the p-prettiest, but Charlotte would do very well. Lizzie’s promised to Edward Heron.”

“Not “promised”, dearest,” Elizabeth said in a low voice. “We only—hoped, if he could but get his Captaincy, perhaps Mama would consent.”

“Even supposing it, my love,” said Mrs Maulfrey with great good sense, “what—what, I ask of you, is a Captain of a Line Regiment when compared with the Earl of Rule? And from all I hear the young man has the most meagre of fortunes, and who, pray, is to buy his promotion?”

Horatia said, quite undaunted: “Edward t-told me that if he had the good fortune to be in another engagement there might be a ch-chance.”

Miss Winwood gave a slight shudder, and lifted one hand. “ will say I am unfeeling, my dear Lizzie, but it would not do at all. Why, how would you contrive on the young man’s pay? It is all horribly sad, but only think of the position you will fill, the jewels you will have!”

The prospect appeared to affect Miss Winwood with repulsion, but she said nothing. It was left to Horatia to express the sentiments of all three sisters. “Vulgar!” she said, “You are, you know, Theresa.”

Mrs Maulfrey blushed, and made a business of arranging her stiff skirts. “Of course I know that would not weigh with Lizzie, but you can’t deny it is a brilliant match. What does my Aunt feel?”

“Deeply thankful,” said Charlotte. “As indeed we must all be, when we consider the straits Pelham has placed us in.”