The Quiet Gentleman

Thus it was that Mr. and Mrs. Morville, arriving in the middle of the following week at Gilbourne House, found that although their daughter was certainly there to welcome them she had no immediate intention of rejoining the family circle. Mr. Morville, much astonished, was at once shocked and grieved. He feared that Drusilla had been led away by grandeur; and, had he received the least encouragement from his helpmate, he would have felt strongly inclined to have exerted his parental authority to compel his daughter to return to her own home. So far from receiving such encouragement, he was dissuaded, in unmistakable terms, from expressing even the mildest desire for Drusilla's return.

"It appears," said Mrs. Morville fluently, "that they are in trouble at Stanyon. If Lady St. Erth wishes Drusilla to remain with her for the present, I should not like to be disobliging, you know."

Mr. Morville conceded this point, but observed that he knew not why his daughter should be required to act as a sick-bed attendant in a household where as many as twenty—or, for anything he knew, thirty—servants were employed.

"As to that," said Mrs. Morville, "it is Lady St. Erth rather than her stepson who depends just now upon Drusilla. These very shocking rumours have distressed her excessively. I am sure it is no wonder! And Drusilla, you know, feels that it would be a shabby thing to desert her, after her kindness. I own, I cannot but agree that we are very much obliged to her ladyship for entertaining our daughter during these weeks of our absence; and I should not, for my part, wish Drusilla to be backward in any attention."

Mr. Morville, while he assimilated these words, removed his spectacles, and thoroughly polished them with his handkerchief. He then replaced them, and through them regarded the wife of his bosom with some severity. "When we set forth upon our travels, my love," he said, "it was only at Lady St. Erth's earnest entreaty that we left our daughter in her charge. The obligation was upon her side; and had it been otherwise I should never have consented to the arrangement. I had thought that we were at one on this!"

"Certainly! There can be no question!" Mrs. Morville said, showing a heightened colour. "The thing is—Mr. Morville, I have been closeted with Drusilla this past hour! I will not conceal from you that what she said to me—and, even more, what she did not say to me!—has given me food for serious reflection!"

"Indeed!"

"Reserve," announced Mrs. Morville nobly, "is at all times repugnant to me! My dear sir, I beg you will tell me anything you may know of this young man!"

"What young man?" asked her lord, in bewildered accents.

Mrs. Morville had the greatest respect for her husband's scholarly attainments, and for his grasp on imponderable subjects, but she had frequently been obliged to own that on more practical matters he was exasperatingly obtuse. She clicked her tongue impatiently, and responded: "Why, the new Earl, to be sure!"

"St. Erth?" he said. "I have never met him. I believe my brother is acquainted with him, but I do not immediately perceive in what way this can be germane to the present issue."

"I daresay you might not," said Mrs. Morville tolerantly, "for you never perceive what is under your nose, my love! What would you say to it if our daughter were to become the Countess of St. Erth?"

"What?" exclaimed the gentleman, in anything but a gratified tone. "You cannot be in earnest!"

She nodded. "I assure you, I was never more so! I saw at a glance, of course, that Drusilla was changed, but until I had enjoyed an hour alone with her I had no more idea of the cause than you. Though, to be sure, I might have guessed, from the scant references in her letters to his lordship, how the wind blew! He seems to be a most amiable young man, my dear sir! And this accident, shocking though it may be, throwing them together in such a way—!"

"Have I heard aright?" interrupted Mr. Morville. "Do I understand that you—you, Mrs. Morville!—would welcome such an alliance?"

"Pray, have you heard anything about the young man which would preclude my welcoming it?" she demanded.

"I know nothing of him. I daresay he is as idle and as expensive as any other of his order."

"I am astonished that a man of your mental attainment, my dear Mr. Morville, should speak with such prejudice!" said his wife. "From all I have heard from Drusilla, he is quite unexceptionable, and blessed with so sweet a temper that I am sure he must make any female a most delightful husband!"

"He may be possessed of all the virtues!" retorted Mr. Morville, "but he must be held to stand for everything which you and I, ma'am, have dedicated our lives to combating! His very rank, I should have supposed, would have rendered him odious to you! Is it possible that I have been deceived? Were we not at one in cherishing the hope that our daughter and Henry Poundsbridge would make a match of it?"