a human heart should beat for two,
whate'er may say your single scorners;
and all the hearths i ever knew
had got a pair of chimney-corners.
f. locker: london lyrics.
the next day, at about six o'clock, just as they had gone upstairs from the studio, constance devonshire was announced, and came sailing in, in her smartest attire, and with her most gracious smile on her face.
"i have come to offer my congratulations," she cried, going up to lucy; "you know, i have always thought little mr. jermyn a nice person."
[pg 217]
lucy laughed quietly.
"i am glad you have brought your congratulations in person, conny. i rather expected you would tell your coachman to leave cards at the door."
conny turned away her face abruptly.
"what is the good of coming to see such busy people as you have been lately?... and with so much love-making going on at the same time! what does mrs. maryon think of it all?"
"oh, she finds it very tame and hackneyed, i am afraid."
"you see," added phyllis, who lounged idly in an arm-chair by the window, pale but sprightly, "the course of true love runs so monotonously smooth in this household. and mrs. maryon has a taste for the dramatic."
conny laughed; and at this point the door was thrown open to admit aunt caroline, whose fixed and rigid smile was intended to show that she was in a gracious mood, and was accepted by the girls as a signal of truce.
"what is this a little bird tells me, lucy?" she cried archly, for mrs. pratt shared the liking of her sex for matters matrimonial.
[pg 218]
fanny, who was, in fact, none other than the little bird who had broken the news, put her head on one side in unconsciously avine fashion, and smiled benevolently at her sister.
"i am engaged to mr. jermyn," said lucy, her clear voice lingering proudly over the words.
conny winced suddenly; then turned to gaze through the window at the blank casements above the auctioneer's shop.
"then you have found out who mr. jermyn is?" went on aunt caroline, still in her most conciliatory tones.
"we never wanted to know," said lucy, unexpectedly showing fight.
aunt caroline flushed, but she had come resolved against hostile encounter, in which, hitherto, she had found herself overpowered by force of numbers; so she contented herself with saying—
"and have you any prospect of getting married?"
"frank has gone to africa for the present," said lucy.
aunt caroline looked significant.
"i only hope," she said afterwards to fanny, who let her out at the street-door,[pg 219] "that your sister has not fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous adventurer. it will be time when the young man comes home, if he ever does, for mr. pratt to make the proper inquiries."
fanny had risen into favour since her engagement; mr. marsh, also, had won golden opinions at lancaster gate.
"i believe," fanny replied, speaking for once to the point, "that frank jermyn is going to write, himself, to mr. pratt, at the first opportunity."
meanwhile, upstairs in the sitting-room, conny was delivering herself of her opinion that they had all behaved shamefully to aunt caroline.
"she had a right to know. and it is very good of her to trouble about such a set of ungrateful girls at all," she cried. "you can't expect every one besides yourselves to look upon frank jermyn as dropped from heaven."
"aunt caroline is cumulative—not to be judged at a sitting," pleaded gertrude.
very soon constance herself rose to go.
"i shall not see you again unless you come down to us; which, i suppose, you won't," she said. "we go to eastbourne[pg 220] on friday; and afterwards to homburg. mama is going to write and invite you in due form."
"it is very kind of mrs. devonshire. lucy and i cannot possibly leave home, but phyllis would like to go," answered gertrude; a remark of which phyllis herself took no notice.
"well then, good-bye. lucy, fred sends his congratulations. phyllis, my dear, we shall meet ere long. fanny, i shall look out for your wedding in the paper. come on, gerty, and let a fellow out!"
on the other side of the door her manner changed suddenly.
"do come home and dine, gerty."
"i can't, con, possibly."
"gerty, of course i can guess about fred. i knew it was no good, but i can't help being sorry."
"it was out of the question, poor boy."
"oh, don't pity him too much. he'll get over it soon enough. his is not a complaint that lasts."
there was a significant emphasis on the last words, that did not escape gertrude.
"you look better, conny, than when i last saw you."
[pg 221]
"oh, i'm all right. there's nothing the matter with me but too many parties."
"i think dancing has agreed with you."
"i don't know about dancing. i have taken to sitting in conservatories under pink lamps. that is better sport, and far more becoming to the complexion."
"i shouldn't play that game, conny. it never ends well."
"indeed it does. often in st. george's, hanover square. you are shocked, but i do not contemplate matrimony just at present. but i see you agree with chastelard—
"'i do not like this manner of a dance;
this game of two and two; it were much better
to mix between the dances, than to sit,
each lady out of earshot with her friend.'"
"have you been taking to literature?"
"yes; to the modern poets and the french novelists particularly. when next you hear of me, i shall have taken probably to slumming; shall have found peace in bearing jellies to aged paupers. then you might write a moral tale about me."
gertrude sighed, as the door closed on constance. it was the devonshires who,[pg 222] throughout their troubles, had shown them the most unwavering kindness; and on the devonshires, it seemed, they were doomed to bring misfortune.
at the end of august, fanny was quietly married at marylebone church. she would have dearly liked a "white wedding;" and secretly hoped that her sisters would suggest what she dared not—a white satin bride and white muslin bridesmaids. truth to tell, such an idea never entered the heads of those practical young women; and poor fanny went soberly to the altar in a dark green travelling dress, which was becoming if not festive.
aunt caroline and uncle septimus came up from tunbridge wells for the wedding, and the devonshires, who were away, lent their carriage. it was a sober, middle-aged little function enough, and every one was glad when it was over.
aunt caroline said little, but contented herself with sending her hard, keen eyes into every nook and corner, every fold and plait, every dish and bowl; while she mentally appraised the value of the feast.
one result of the encounters with her nieces was this, that she was more [pg 223]outwardly gracious and less inwardly benevolent than before; a change not wholly to be deprecated.
lucy, with bright eyes, listened, with the air of one who has a right to be interested, to the words of the marriage service, taking afterwards her usual share in practical details. she was upheld, no doubt, by the consciousness of the letter in her pocket; a letter which had come that very morning; was written on thin paper in a bold hand; and in common with others from the same source, was bright and kind; tender and hopeful; and very full of confidential statements as to all that concerned the writer.
phyllis, pale but beautiful, alternated between langour and a fitful sprightliness; her three weeks at eastbourne seemed to have done her little good; while gertrude went through her part mechanically, and remembered remorsefully that she had never been very nice to fanny.
as for the bride, she was subdued and tearful, as an orthodox bride should be; and invited all her sisters in turn to come and stay with her at notting hill directly the honeymoon in switzerland should be over. edward marsh suffered the usual [pg 224]insignificance of bridegrooms; but did all that was demanded of him with exactness.
in the evening, when that blankness which invariably follows a wedding had fallen upon the sisters, mrs. maryon came up into the sitting-room, and beguiled them with tales of the various brides she had known; who, if they had not married in haste, must certainly, to judge by the sequel, have repented at leisure.
