A Civil Contract Read online

  He did not again mention the marriage-scheme, but devoted himself instead to the task of guiding the Viscount through the tangled maze of his father’s affairs. He was genuinely grieved to see the look of care deepen in the young man’s fine eyes, but he did not try to minimize the gravity of his predicament: the more fully my lord realized this the more likely would he be to overcome his reluctance to marry for the sake of a fortune. When Wimmering left the Priory it was in a hopeful mood, for his opinion of his new patron’s good sense had mounted considerably. He had taken the shocking news well, not railing against fate, or uttering any word of bitterness. If he blamed his father it was silently: he seemed more inclined to blame himself. He was undoubtedly a little stunned; but when he had recovered he would think it over calmly, and, in his search for a solution to his troubles, remember the suggestion that had been made to him, and perhaps think that over too.

  Mr Wimmering was not a very warmhearted man, but when he took leave of Adam he was conscious of a purely human desire to help him. He was behaving beautifully: much better than his father had behaved in moments of sudden stress. When he saw Wimmering off in one of his own carriages, which would convey Wimmering to Market Deeping, on the first stage of his journey back to London, he said, with his delightful smile: ‘You will be jolted to bits, I’m afraid! The road is as bad as any in Portugal. Thank you for undertaking such a tiresome journey: I am very much obliged to you! I shall be in town within a few days – as soon as I have settled some few matters here, and consulted with my mother.’

  He shook hands, and waited to see the carriage in motion before going back to the library.

  He sat down again at the desk, with the intention of arranging in some sort of order the litter of papers on it, but when he had gathered into a formidable pile the tradesmen’s bills, he sat quite still for a long time, looking through the window at the daffodils, but not seeing them.

  He was recalled from this abstraction by the sound of an opening door, and looked round to see that his younger sister was peeping into the room.

  ‘Has he gone?’ she asked, in conspiratorial accents. ‘May I come in?’

  His eyes lit with amusement, but he replied with due gravity: ‘Yes, but take care you are unobserved!’

  She twinkled responsively. ‘I like you the best of all my family,’ she confided, coming across the room to the chair lately occupied by Wimmering.

  ‘Thank you!’

  ‘Not that that’s saying much,’ she added reflectively, ‘for I don’t count aunts and uncles and cousins. So there are now only four of us. And to tell you the truth, Adam, I only loved Papa in a dutiful way, and Stephen not at all! Of course, I might have loved Maria, if she hadn’t died before I was born, but I don’t think I should have, because from what Mama tells us she was the most odious child!’

  ‘Lydia, Mama never said such a thing!’ protested Adam.

  ‘No, exactly the reverse! She says Maria was too good for this world, so you see what I mean, don’t you?’

  He could not deny it, but suggested, with a quivering lip, that Maria, had she been spared beyond her sixth year, might have outgrown her oppressive virtue. Lydia agreed to this, though doubtfully, observing that Charlotte was very virtuous too. ‘And I am most sincerely attached to Charlotte,’ she assured him.

  ‘To Mama also, surely!’

  ‘Of course: that is obligatory!’ she answered, with dignity.

  He was taken aback, but after eyeing her for a moment he prudently refrained from comment. He was not very well-acquainted with her, for she was nine years younger than he; and although, during his weary convalescence, she had frequently diverted him with her youthful opinions, her visits to his sick-bed had been restricted by the exigencies of education. Miss Keckwick, a governess of uncertain age and severe aspect, had rarely failed to summon Lydia from her brother’s room at the end of half-an-hour, either for an Italian lesson, or for an hour’s practice on the harp. The fruits of her painstaking diligence had not so far been made apparent to Adam, for although there was a good deal of intelligence in his sister’s lively face she had as yet vouchsafed no sign of the erudition to be expected in one educated by so highly qualified a preceptress as Miss Keckwick.

  He was wondering why she was so much more taking than her elder, and far more beautiful, sister, when she emerged from some undisclosed reverie, and disconcerted him by demanding: ‘Are we ruined, Adam?’

  ‘Oh, I trust it won’t be as bad as that!’

  ‘I had better tell you at once,’ interrupted Lydia, ‘that although I have always set my face resolutely against Education, which I very soon perceived would be of no use to me whatsoever, I am not at all stupid! Why, even Charlotte has known that we stood on the brink of disaster for years, and no one could say that her understanding is superior! And also, Adam, I am turned seventeen, besides having a great deal of worldly knowledge, and I mean to help you, if I can, so pray don’t speak in that nothing-to-do-with-you voice!’

  ‘I beg pardon!’ he apologized hastily.

  ‘Is it ruin?’

  ‘Something uncomfortably like it, I’m afraid.’

  ‘I thought so. Mama has been saying for weeks that she expects at any moment to find herself without a roof over her head.’

  ‘It won’t be as bad as that,’ he assured her. ‘She will have her jointure – do you know what that is?’

  ‘Yes, but she says it is a paltry sum, and that we shall be obliged to subsist on black-puddings – and that, Adam, will never do for Mama!’

  ‘She exaggerates. I hope she will be able to live in tolerable comfort. She will have about eight hundred pounds a year – not a fortune, but at least an independence. With a little economy –’

  ‘Mama,’ stated Lydia, ‘has never studied economy.’

  He smiled. ‘Have you?’

  ‘Only Political Economy, and that’s of no use! I may not know a great deal about it, but I do know that it has to do with the distribution of wealth, which is why I decided not to tease myself with it, on account of not having any wealth to distribute.’

  ‘Didn’t the learned Miss Keckwick teach you household economy?’

  ‘No: her mind was of an elevated order. Besides, everyone knows what that means! It’s having only one course for dinner, and not enough footmen, and making up one’s own dresses, which is perfectly useless, because if you have no money to pay for anything it’s the most idiotish waste of time to be learning how to save it! Mama won’t – but I wasn’t thinking of her: I was thinking of you, and Fontley.’ She bent a serious gaze upon him. ‘Mama says Fontley will be lost to us. Is it true? Please tell me, Adam!’ She read the answer in his face, and lowered her gaze. After carefully pleating her muslin gown across her knees, she said: ‘I find that a truly detestable thought.’

  ‘So do I,’ he agreed sadly. ‘Too detestable to be talked of, until I’ve grown more accustomed to it.’

  She looked up. ‘I know it is much worse for you, and I don’t mean to talk of it in a repining way. The thing is that I’m persuaded we ought to make a push to save it. I have been thinking about it a great deal, and I perceive that it is now my duty to contract a Brilliant Alliance. Do you think I could, if I set my mind to it?’

  ‘No, certainly not! My dear Lydia –’

  ‘Well, I do,’ she said decidedly. ‘I can see, of course, that there may be one or two little rubs in the way, particularly the circumstance of my not yet being out. Mama had meant to present me this season, you know, but she can’t do so while we are in black gloves, and I see that if I don’t go into society –’

  ‘Who put this nonsense into your head?’ interrupted Adam.

  She looked surprised. ‘It isn’t nonsense! Why, don’t you know how hopeful Mama was that Charlotte would contract a Brilliant Alliance? She very nearly did, too, but she wouldn’t accept the offer, on account of Lambert Ryde. And I must say that that put me quite out of charity with her! Anyone but a wet-goose would have known what would come