mean it when I say I am not going to marry you. Ever!”
The bluntness of this actually shocked Mr. Spalding into the use of monosyllables. He asked, baldly, “But then, what will you do?”
“Look about me for a post as a governess.”
A distinct note of grievance, which the charitable (but not Sir Edmund) might have ascribed to disappointment at the dashing of his hopes, crept into Mr. Spalding ’ s voice as he inquired, “And who, pray, will employ you? You could hardly have expected to marry at all — and here you have a man of, I hope I may make bold to say, the highest respectability, prepared to make you his wife! What better prospect could you look to find? How, after what I am constrained to call your rash conduct of the past, can you hope to — ”
“I wish you wouldn ’ t feel constrained to call it anything at all!” said Elinor, with spirit. Sir Edmund silently applauded her. “It is in the past, you know!”
“It is not, however, the kind of thing that can be forgotten!” pronounced the clergyman sternly. “Oh, dear me, dear me, no! A young woman ’ s good name, once sullied but enough of that!” he added rather hastily, seeing a dangerous flash in Miss Radley ’ s eye. “Where, I ask, will you obtain a post? I shudder, I repeat I shudder to think what might become of you! I cannot, I must not, I will not permit it! My conscience would not allow of such a thing! Sir Edmund here will, I am persuaded, lend me his support in dissuading you from your ill-advised intention of attempting to obtain paid employment of a respectable nature, doomed to failure as such an attempt must be!”
“Then,” said Elinor, her patience cracking, “I shall just have to attempt to find work which is not of a respectable nature, shan ’ t I? And you will have all the satisfaction of being able to say it is exactly what you expected!”
She regretted this little outburst the moment the words were out of her mouth, but had not much time to rue her lack of self-control, since Sir Edmund, his sympathy growing in proportion to her evident distress, had decided it was time he took a hand in bringing this scene to an end.
“No, Mr. Spalding,” he remarked, “I ’ m afraid I can ’ t in all conscience join you in wishing Miss Radley not to accept a position! I ’ m sure your concern for her welfare does you credit, but you will see that you may set your mind at rest when I tell you that, at the very moment when you called, I was doing my best to induce her to accompany me to London.”
In the ensuing silence, Elinor gave a small gasp of shock and surprise, while Persephone supplied musical commentary in the form of a dazzling series of voice exercises.
“You, sir? Mr. Spalding ’ s naturally protuberant eyes appeared to be on the point of popping right out of his head. “ You ? Well! You amaze me. I must say you amaze me! Elinor, going to London with you?”
“Yes: to undertake the charge of my ward, Miss Persephone Grafton, whom you can hear singing in there,” said Sir Edmund frostily, not at all caring for the suggestion of a leer which he fancied he saw begin to creep over the other man ’ s face. “From my point of view, it all falls out most fortunately. I urgently require a companion and chaperon for the child, since my sister Viscountess Yoxford, to whose house in Upper Brook Street I am taking her, is in delicate health. And here is Miss Radley, precisely the lady I would have wished to find for that position, about to seek a situation on her own account! Moreover,” he said, rather enjoying himself as he tried to vie with the clergyman in unctuousness, “the fact of our being connected, however distantly, through Lady Emberley makes the arrangement quite particularly suitable for all parties concerned, doesn ’ t it, Cousin Elinor?” he inquired, bending his very blue gaze on Miss Radley.
The expressions of amazement, amusement and relief rapidly chasing one another over her face as
The bluntness of this actually shocked Mr. Spalding into the use of monosyllables. He asked, baldly, “But then, what will you do?”
“Look about me for a post as a governess.”
A distinct note of grievance, which the charitable (but not Sir Edmund) might have ascribed to disappointment at the dashing of his hopes, crept into Mr. Spalding ’ s voice as he inquired, “And who, pray, will employ you? You could hardly have expected to marry at all — and here you have a man of, I hope I may make bold to say, the highest respectability, prepared to make you his wife! What better prospect could you look to find? How, after what I am constrained to call your rash conduct of the past, can you hope to — ”
“I wish you wouldn ’ t feel constrained to call it anything at all!” said Elinor, with spirit. Sir Edmund silently applauded her. “It is in the past, you know!”
“It is not, however, the kind of thing that can be forgotten!” pronounced the clergyman sternly. “Oh, dear me, dear me, no! A young woman ’ s good name, once sullied but enough of that!” he added rather hastily, seeing a dangerous flash in Miss Radley ’ s eye. “Where, I ask, will you obtain a post? I shudder, I repeat I shudder to think what might become of you! I cannot, I must not, I will not permit it! My conscience would not allow of such a thing! Sir Edmund here will, I am persuaded, lend me his support in dissuading you from your ill-advised intention of attempting to obtain paid employment of a respectable nature, doomed to failure as such an attempt must be!”
“Then,” said Elinor, her patience cracking, “I shall just have to attempt to find work which is not of a respectable nature, shan ’ t I? And you will have all the satisfaction of being able to say it is exactly what you expected!”
She regretted this little outburst the moment the words were out of her mouth, but had not much time to rue her lack of self-control, since Sir Edmund, his sympathy growing in proportion to her evident distress, had decided it was time he took a hand in bringing this scene to an end.
“No, Mr. Spalding,” he remarked, “I ’ m afraid I can ’ t in all conscience join you in wishing Miss Radley not to accept a position! I ’ m sure your concern for her welfare does you credit, but you will see that you may set your mind at rest when I tell you that, at the very moment when you called, I was doing my best to induce her to accompany me to London.”
In the ensuing silence, Elinor gave a small gasp of shock and surprise, while Persephone supplied musical commentary in the form of a dazzling series of voice exercises.
“You, sir? Mr. Spalding ’ s naturally protuberant eyes appeared to be on the point of popping right out of his head. “ You ? Well! You amaze me. I must say you amaze me! Elinor, going to London with you?”
“Yes: to undertake the charge of my ward, Miss Persephone Grafton, whom you can hear singing in there,” said Sir Edmund frostily, not at all caring for the suggestion of a leer which he fancied he saw begin to creep over the other man ’ s face. “From my point of view, it all falls out most fortunately. I urgently require a companion and chaperon for the child, since my sister Viscountess Yoxford, to whose house in Upper Brook Street I am taking her, is in delicate health. And here is Miss Radley, precisely the lady I would have wished to find for that position, about to seek a situation on her own account! Moreover,” he said, rather enjoying himself as he tried to vie with the clergyman in unctuousness, “the fact of our being connected, however distantly, through Lady Emberley makes the arrangement quite particularly suitable for all parties concerned, doesn ’ t it, Cousin Elinor?” he inquired, bending his very blue gaze on Miss Radley.
The expressions of amazement, amusement and relief rapidly chasing one another over her face as
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