第76章

'Oh, yes! but I would though if I liked her,' said Frank. 'There isn't a more constant fellow in the world than I am in that way--you try me, Miss Dunstable.'

'When young ladies make such trials as that, they sometimes find it too late to go back if the trial doesn't succeed, Mr Gresham.'

'Oh, of course, there's always some risk. It's like hunting; there would be no fun if there was no danger.'

'But if you get a tumble one day you can retrieve your honour the next; but a poor girl if she once trusts a man who says that he loves her, has no such chance. For myself, I would never listen to a man unless I'd known him for seven years at least.'

'Seven years!' said Frank, who could not help thinking that in seven years' time Miss Dunstable would be almost an old woman. 'Seven days is enough to know any person.'

'Or perhaps seven hours; eh, Mr Gresham?'

'Seven hours--well, perhaps seven hours, if they happen to be a good deal together during that time.'

'There's nothing after all like love at first sight, is there, Mr Gresham?'

Frank knew well enough that she was quizzing him, and could not resist the temptation he felt to be revenged on her. 'I am sure it's very pleasant,' said he; 'but as for myself, I have never experienced it.'

'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Miss Dunstable. 'Upon my word, Mr Gresham, I like you amazingly. I didn't expect to meet anybody down here that I could like half so much. You must come and see me in London, and I'll introduce you to my three knights,' and so saying, she moved away and fell into conversation with some of the higher powers.

Frank felt himself to be rather snubbed, in spite of the strong expression which Miss Dunstable had made in his favour. It was not quite clear to him that she did not take him for a boy. He was, to be sure, avenged on her for that by taking her for a middle-aged woman; but, nevertheless, he was hardly satisfied with himself; 'and she might find afterwards that she was left in the lurch with all her money.' And so he retired, solitary, into a far part of the room, and began to think of Mary Thorne. As he did so, and as his eyes fell upon Miss Dunstable's stiff curls, he almost shuddered.

And then the ladies retired. His aunt, with a good-natured smile on her face, come to him as she was leaving the room, the last of the bevy, and putting her hand on his arm, led him out into a small unoccupied chamber which opened from the grand saloon.

'Upon my word, Master Frank,' said she, 'you seem to be losing no time with the heiress. You have quite made an impression already.'

'I don't know much about that, aunt,' said he, looking rather sheepish.

'Oh, I declare you have; but, Frank, my dear boy, you should not precipitate these sort of things too much. It is well to take a little more time: it is more valued; and perhaps, you know, on the whole--'

Perhaps Frank might know; but it was clear that Lady de Courcy did not: at any rate, she did not know how to express herself. Had she said out her mind plainly, she would probably have spoken thus: 'I want you to make love to Miss Dunstable, certainly; or at any rate to make an offer to her; but you need not make a show of yourself and of her, by doing it so openly as all that.' The countess, however, did not want to reprimand her obedient nephew, and therefore did not speak out her thoughts.

'Well?' said Frank, looking up into her face.

'Take a leetle more time--that is all, my dear boy; slow and sure, you know,' so the countess again patted his arm and went away to bed.

'Old fool!' muttered Frank to himself, as he returned to the room where the men were still standing. He was right in this: she was an old fool, or she would have seen that there was no chance whatever that her nephew and Miss Dunstable should become man and wife.

'Well Frank,' said the Honourable John; 'so you're after the heiress already.'

'He won't give any of us a chance,' said the Honourable George. 'If he goes on in that way she'll be Mrs Gresham before a month is over. But, Frank, what will she say of your manner of looking for Barchester votes?'

'Mr Gresham is certainly an excellent hand at canvassing,' said Mr Nearthewinde; 'only a little too open in his manner of proceeding.'

'I got that chorister for you at any rate,' said Frank. 'And you would never have had him without me.'

'I don't think half so much of the chorister's vote as that of Miss Dunstable,' said the Honourable George: 'that's the interest that is really worth looking after.'

'But, surely,' said Mr Moffat, 'Miss Dunstable has not property in Barchester?' Poor man! his heart was so intent on his election that he had no a moment to devote to the claims of love.