He Knew He Was Right - Anthony Trollope (rainbow fish read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Anthony Trollope
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Rowley, unable to repress the expression of the old regrets. ‘Of course
she is Lady Peterborough, mamma; what else should she be? though she
does not so sign herself.’ ‘We think,’ said the American peeress, ‘that
we shall be at Monkhams before the end of August, and Charles says that
you are to come just the same. There will be nobody else there, of
course, because of Lord Peterborough’s death.’ ‘I saw it in the paper,’
said Sir Marmaduke, ‘and quite forgot to mention it.’
That same evening there was a long family discussion about Nora’s
prospects. They were all together in the gloomy sitting-room at Gregg’s
Hotel, and Sir Marmaduke had not yielded. The ladies had begun to feel
that it would be well not to press him to yield. Practically he had
yielded. There was now no question of cursing and of so-called
disinheritance. Nora was to remain in England, of course, with the
intention of being married to Hugh Stanbury; and the difficulty
consisted in the need of an immediate home for her. It wanted now but
twelve days to that on which the family were to sail from Southampton,
and nothing had been settled. ‘If papa will allow me something ever so
small, and will trust me, I will live alone in lodgings,’ said Nora.
‘It is the maddest thing I ever heard,’ said Sir Marmaduke.
‘Who would take care of you, Nora?’ asked Lady Rowley.
‘And who would walk about with you?’ said Lucy.
‘I don’t see how it would be possible to live alone like that,’ said
Sophie.
‘Nobody would take care of me, and nobody would walk about with me, and
I could live alone very well,’ said Nora. ‘I don’t see why a young
woman is to be supposed to be so absolutely helpless as all that comes
to. Of course it won’t be very nice, but it need not be for long.’
‘Why not for long?’ asked Sir Marmaduke.
‘Not for very long,’ said Nora.
‘It does not seem to me,’ said Sir Marmaduke, after a considerable
pause, ‘that this gentleman himself is so particularly anxious for the
match. I have heard no day named, and no rational proposition made.’
‘Papa, that is unfair, most unfair and ungenerous.’
‘Nora,’ said her mother, ‘do not speak in that way to your father.’
‘Mamma, it is unfair. Papa accuses Mr Stanbury of being being lukewarm
and untrue—of not being in earnest.’
‘I would rather that he were not in earnest,’ said Sir Marmaduke.
‘Mr Stanbury is ready at any time,’ continued Nora. ‘He would have the
banns at once read, and marry me in three weeks if I would let him.’
‘Good gracious, Nora!’ exclaimed Lady Rowley.
‘But I have refused to name any day, or to make any arrangement,
because I did not wish to do so before papa had given his consent. That
is why things are in this way. If papa will but let me take a room till
I can go to Monkhams, I will have everything arranged from there. You
can trust Mr Glascock for that, and you can trust her.’
‘I suppose your papa will make you some allowance,’ said Lady Rowley.
‘She is entitled to nothing, as she has refused to go to her proper
home,’ said Sir Marmaduke.
The conversation, which had now become very disagreeable, was not
allowed to go any further. And it was well that it should be
interrupted. They all knew that Sir Marmaduke must be brought round by
degrees, and that both Nora and Lady Rowley had gone as far as was
prudent at present. But all trouble on this head was suddenly ended for
this evening by the entrance of the waiter with a telegram. It was
addressed to Lady Rowley, and she opened it with trembling hands as
ladies always do open telegrams. It was from Emily Trevelyan. ‘Louis is
much worse. Let somebody come to me. Hugh Stanbury would be the best.’
In a few minutes they were so much disturbed that no one quite knew
what should be done at once. Lady Rowley began by declaring that she
would go herself. Sir Marmaduke of course pointed out that this was
impossible, and suggested that he would send a lawyer. Nora professed
herself ready to start immediately on the journey, but was stopped by a
proposition from her sister Lucy that in that case Hugh Stanbury would
of course go with her. Lady Rowley asked whether Hugh would go, and
Nora asserted that he would go immediately as a matter of course. She
was sure he would go, let the people at the D. R. say what they might.
According to her there was always somebody at the call of the editor of
the D. R. to do the work of anybody else, when anybody else wanted to
go away. Sir Marmaduke shook his head, and was very uneasy. He still
thought that a lawyer would be best, feeling, no doubt, that if
Stanbury’s services were used on such an occasion, there must be an end
of all opposition to the marriage. But before half-an-hour was over
Stanbury was sent for. The boots of the hotel went off in a cab to the
office of the D. R. with a note from Lady Rowley. ‘Dear Mr Stanbury, We
have had a telegram from Emily, and want to see you, at once. Please
come. We shall sit up and wait for you till you do come, E. R.’
It was very distressing to them because, let the result be what it
might, it was all but impossible that Mrs Trevelyan should be with them
before they had sailed, and it was quite out of the question that they
should now postpone their journey. Were Stanbury to start by the
morning train on the following day, he could not reach Siena till the
afternoon of the fourth day; and let the result be what it might when
he arrived there, it would be out of the question that Emily Trevelyan
should come back quite at once, or that she should travel at the same
speed. Of course they might hear again by telegram, and also by letter;
but they could not see her, or have any hand in her plans. ‘If anything
were to happen, she might have come with us,’ said Lady Rowley.
‘It is out of the question,’ said Sir Marmaduke gloomily. ‘I could not
give up the places I have taken.’
‘A few days more would have done it.’
‘I don’t suppose she would wish to go,’ said Nora. ‘Of course she would
not take Louey there. Why should she? And then I don’t suppose he is so
ill as that.’
‘There is no saying,’ said Sir Marmaduke. It was very evident that,
whatever might be Sir Marmaduke’s opinion, he had no strongly developed
wish for his son-in-law’s recovery.
They all sat up waiting for Hugh Stanbury till eleven, twelve, one, and
two o’clock at night. The ‘boots’ had returned saying that Mr Stanbury
had not been at the office of the newspaper, but that, according to
information received, he certainly would be there that night. No other
address had been given to the man, and the note had therefore of
necessity been left at the office. Sir Marmaduke became very fretful,
and was evidently desirous of being liberated from his night watch. But
he could not go himself, and shewed his impatience by endeavouring to
send the others away. Lady Rowley replied for herself that she should
certainly remain in her corner on the sofa all night, if it were
necessary; and as she slept very soundly in her corner, her comfort was
not much impaired. Nora was pertinacious in refusing to go to bed. ‘I
should only go to my own room, papa, and remain there,’ she said. ‘Of
course I must speak to him before he goes.’ Sophie and Lucy considered
that they had as much right to sit up as Nora, and submitted to be
called geese and idiots by their father.
Sir Marmaduke had arisen with a snort from a short slumber, and had
just sworn that he and everybody else should go to bed, when there came
a ring at the front-door bell. The trusty boots had also remained up,
and in two minutes Hugh Stanbury was in the room. He had to make his
excuses before anything else could be said. When he reached the D. R.
office between ten and eleven, it was absolutely incumbent on him to
write a leading article before he left it. He had been in the
reporter’s gallery of the House all the evening, and he had come away
laden with his article. ‘It was certainly better that we should remain
up, than that the whole town should be disappointed,’ said Sir
Marmaduke, with something of a sneer.
‘It is so very, very good of you to come,’ said Nora. ‘Indeed it is,’
said Lady Rowley; ‘but we were quite sure you would come.’ Having
kissed and blessed him as her son-in-law, Lady Rowley was now prepared
to love him almost as well as though he had been Lord Peterborough.
‘Perhaps, Mr Stanbury, we had better shew you this telegram,’ said Sir
Marmaduke, who had been standing with the scrap of paper in his hand
since the ring of the bell had been heard. Hugh took the message and
read it. ‘I do not know what should have made my daughter mention your
name,’ continued Sir Marmaduke ‘but as she has done so, and as perhaps
the unfortunate invalid himself may have alluded to you, we thought it
best to send for you.’
‘No doubt it was best, Sir Marmaduke.’
‘We are so situated that I cannot go. It is absolutely necessary that
we should leave town for Southampton on Friday week. The ship sails on
Saturday.’
‘I will go as a matter of course,’ said Hugh. ‘I will start at once, at
any time. To tell the truth, when I got Lady Rowley’s note, I thought
that it was to be so. Trevelyan and I were very intimate at one time,
and it may be that he will receive me without displeasure.’
There was much to be discussed, and considerable difficulty in the
discussion. This was enhanced, too, by the feeling in the minds of all
of them that Hugh and Sir Marmaduke would not meet again probably for
many years. Were they to part now on terms of close affection, or were
they to part almost as strangers? Had Lucy and Sophie not persistently
remained up, Nora would have faced the difficulty, and taken the bull
by the horns, and asked her father to sanction her engagement in the
presence of her lover. But she could not do it before so many persons,
even though the persons were her own nearest relatives. And then there
arose another embarrassment. Sir Marmaduke, who had taught himself to
believe that Stanbury was so poor as hardly to have the price of a
dinner in his pocket although, in fact, our friend Hugh was probably
the richer man of the two, said something about defraying the cost of
the journey. ‘It is taken altogether on our behalf,’ said Sir
Marmaduke. Hugh became red in the face, looked angry, and muttered a
word or two about Trevelyan being the oldest friend he had in the world
‘even if there were nothing else.’ Sir Marmaduke felt ashamed of
himself without cause, indeed, for the offer was natural, said nothing
further about it; but appeared to be more stiff and ungainly than ever.
The Bradshaw was had out and consulted, and nearly half an hour was
spent in poring over that wondrous volume.
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