The Convenient Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

small, anxious voice.
    ‘I like it,’ said the Earl.
    ‘It is very odd of you,’ marvelled Horatia. ‘But p-perhaps you said that to p-put me at my ease?’
    ‘No,’ said the Earl. ‘I said it because it was true. Will you tell me how old you are?’
    ‘D-does it matter?’ Horatia inquired forebodingly.
    ‘Yes, I think it does,’ said his lordship.
    ‘I was afraid it m-might,’ she said. ‘I am t-turned seventeen.’
    ‘Turned seventeen!’ repeated his lordship. ‘My dear, I couldn’t do it.’
    ‘I’m too young?’
    ‘Much too young, child.’
    Horatia swallowed valiantly. ‘I shall grow older,’ she ventured. ‘I d-don’t want to p-press you, but I am thought to be quite sensible.’
    ‘Do you know how old I am?’ asked the Earl.
    ‘N-no, but my cousin, Mrs M-Maulfrey, says you are not a d-day above thirty-five.’
    ‘Does not that seem a little old to you?’ he suggested.
    ‘Well, it is rather old, perhaps, b-but no one would think you were as much,’ said Horatia kindly.
    At that a laugh escaped him. ‘Thank you,’ he bowed. ‘But I think that thirty-five makes a poor husband for seventeen.’
    ‘P-pray do not give that a thought, sir!’ said Horatia earnestly. ‘I assure you, for my p-part I do not regard it at all. In f-fact, I think I should quite like to marry you.’
    ‘Would you?’ he said. ‘You do me great honour, ma’am.’ He came towards her, and she got up. He took her hand, and raised it to his lips a moment. ‘Now what is it you want me to do?’
    ‘There is one very particular thing,’ Horatia confided. ‘I should not c-care to ask it of you, only that we are m-making a bargain, are we not?’
    ‘Are we?’ said his lordship.
    ‘But you know w-we are!’ Horatia said. ‘You w-want to marry into m-my Family, don’t you?’
    ‘I am beginning to think that I do,’ remarked his lordship.
    Horatia frowned. ‘I quite understood that that was why you offered for L-Lizzie.’
    ‘It was,’ he assured her.
    She seemed satisfied. ‘And you do not w-want a wife to interfere with you. Well, I p-promise I won’t.’
    His lordship looked down at her rather enigmatically. ‘And in return?’
    She drew closer. ‘C-could you do something for Edward?’ she begged. ‘I have d-decided that there is only one thing for him, and that is a P-patron!’
    ‘And – er – am I to be the Patron?’ asked his lordship.
    ‘Would you m-mind very m-much?’
    A muscle at the corner of the Earl’s mouth twitched, but he answered with only the suspicion of a tremor in his voice: ‘I shall be happy to oblige you, ma’am, to the best of my poor endeavour.’
    ‘Thank you very m-much,’ said Horatia seriously. ‘Then he and Lizzie can be m-married, you see. And you will tell Mama that you would just as soon have me, won’t you?’
    ‘I may not phrase it quite like that,’ said the Earl, ‘but I will endeavour to make the matter plain to her. But I do not entirely see how I am to propose this exchange without divulging your visit to me.’
    ‘Oh, you need not m-mind that!’ said Horatia cheerfully. ‘I shall tell her m-myself. I think I had b-better go now. No one knows where I am, and perhaps they m-may wonder.’
    ‘We will drink to our bargain first, do you not think?’ said the Earl, and picked up a small gilt handbell, and rang it.
    A lackey came in answer to the bell. ‘You will bring me –’ the Earl glanced at Horatia – ‘ratafia, and two glasses,’ he said. ‘And my coach will be at the door within ten minutes.’
    ‘If – if the c-coach is for me,’ said Horatia, ‘it is only a step to South Street, sir.’
    ‘But I would rather that you permitted me to convey you,’ said his lordship.
    The butler brought the ratafia himself, and set the heavy silver tray down on a table. He was dismissed with a nod, and went regretfully. He would have liked to see with his own eyes my lord drink a glass of ratafia.
    The Earl poured two glasses, and gave one to