"I said nothing," Mr. Shubrick answered, smiling. "Then Christina went on to remark that Miss Copley did not know me; and that possibly I had been brave for nothing. I still made no answer; and she declared she saw it in my face, that I was determined it should _not_ be for nothing. She wished me success, she added; but 'Dolly had her own way of looking at things.'"
Dolly could not help laughing.
"So that is my story," Mr. Shubrick concluded.
"And, oh, look at the light, look at the light!" said Dolly, jumping up. "Where will mother think I and supper are!"
"She thinks probably that you are in Mr. Copley's room."
"No, she knows I am not; for she is sure to be there herself."
"Then I will go straight to them, while you bring up arrears with supper."
"And Christina will marry Mr. St. Leger!" said Dolly, while she flushed high at this suggestion. "Yet I am not surprised."
"Is it a good match?"
"The world would say so."
"_I_ am not," said Sandie, "according to the same judgment. I am not rich, Dolly. By and by I will tell you all I have. But it is enough for us to live upon comfortably."
Nobody had ever seen Dolly so shy and blushing and timid as she was now, walking down the bank by Mr. Shubrick's side. It was a bit of the same lovely manifestation which he had been enjoying for a day or two with a little alloy. It was without alloy that he enjoyed it now.
CHAPTER XXXV.
WAYS AND MEANS.
As they entered the house, Dolly went downstairs and Mr. Shubrick up; she trembling and in a maze, he with a glad, free step, and a particularly bright face. Mrs. Copley was with her husband, as Dolly had opined.
"Here's one of them," cried Mr. Copley as Sandie entered. "Where have you been all this while? If you think I'll do to be left alone yet, you're mistaken. Where have you been?"
"In what I believe is the park of Brierley--over there under the oaks."
"And where is Dolly, Mr. Shubrick?" Dolly's mother asked.
"I have just brought her home. She is downstairs."
"I sent her to take care of her father," said Mrs. Copley in a dissatisfied tone.
"She informed me that Mr. Copley did not want her, and preferred me,"
said Mr. Shubrick.
"But you did not come?" said Mrs. Copley suspiciously.
He stood looking at her half a minute, with a slight smile upon his face, the frank, pleasant smile which belonged to him; then he turned, took a glass from the table and came to Mr. Copley's side to give him a draught which was due. Next he lifted his patient by the shoulders a little, to arrange the pillows behind him, and as he laid him back upon them he said quietly--"Will you give your daughter to me, Mr. Copley?"
Mr. Copley looked, or stared rather, grumly enough at the speaker.
"That means, you have got her already!"
"Not without your consent."
"I thought as much! Does Dolly want to marry you?"
"I do not know," said Sandie with a smile; "but I believe I may say that she will marry nobody else."
"Ay, there it is. I have other views for my daughter."
"And I thought you were engaged to Miss Thayer?" put in Mrs. Copley.
"True; I was; but that was a boyish mistake. We have all other views.
Miss Thayer is to marry your friend, Mr. St. Leger."
"Christina!" cried Mrs. Copley. "Didn't I know Mrs. Thayer would do that, if she could! And now she has done it. And Christina has thrown you over?"
"Not at all," said Sandie, again with a smile. "And you have not to blame Mrs. Thayer, so far as I know. Miss Thayer and I are very good friends, but we were never intended to marry each other. We have found that out, and acted accordingly."
"And she has got him!" Mrs. Copley repeated. "I told Dolly she would like to do that. Put their two fortunes together, and they will have enough," said poor Mrs. Copley. "That comes of our going to Sorrento!"
"Look here, young man," said Mr. Copley. "If I give you Dolly, as you say, after she has given herself,--the witch!--what are you and she going to live on?"
"We have something to live on," said the young man with quiet independence.
"Not much, I'll be sworn!"
"Not perhaps what you would call much. A lieutenant in the navy is not likely to have more than a very moderate fortune."
"Fortune! What do you call a fortune?"
"Enough to live on."
"Are you ever going to be a captain?"
"I cannot say. But there is some prospect of it."
"Things might be worse, then," grumbled Mr. Copley. "Anyhow, you have tied my tongue, my fine fellow. I can't say a word against you. But look here;--if you don't want a wife that will rule you, I advise you not to marry my Dolly. She's a witch for having her own way. 'My Dolly'!" Mr. Copley half groaned. "I suppose now she's your Dolly. I don't want to give her to any man, that's the truth."
"And I thought all this nursing had been so disinterested!" said Mrs.
Copley dolefully.
Sandie's answer to this was conclusive, of the subject and the conversation both. He went up to Mrs. Copley, took her hand, and bent down and kissed her. Just at that moment they were called to supper; and Mrs. Copley, completely conquered, went down with all her reproaches smothered in the bud. Yet I confess her face showed a conflict of feelings as she entered the kitchen. It was cloudy with disappointment, and at the same time her eyes were wet with tears of some sweeter feeling. Dolly, standing behind the supper-table, looked from the one to the other as the two came in.
"It is all settled, Dolly," said Mr. Shubrick.
And I think he would have taken his betrothal kiss, then and there, had not Dolly's glance been so shy and shrinking that she flashed at him.
She was standing quietly and upright; there was no awkwardness in her demeanour; it was the look of her eyes that laid bans upon Sandie. He restrained himself; paid her no particular attention during supper; talked a great deal, but on entirely indifferent subjects; and if he played the lover to anybody, certainly it was to Mrs. Copley.