Alice, or the Mysteries — Book 06

								

maintain my advancement; in the other, to redeem my fall."
"But did you not tell me," said Caroline, "that Evelyn proposed and
promised to place her fortune at your disposal, even while rejecting your
hand?"
"Absurd mockery!" exclaimed Vargrave; "the foolish boast of a girl,--an
impulse liable to every caprice.  Can you suppose that when she launches
into the extravagance natural to her age and necessary to her position,
she will not find a thousand demands upon her rent-roll not dreamed of
now; a thousand vanities and baubles that will soon erase my poor and
hollow claim from her recollection?  Can you suppose that, if she marry
another, her husband will ever consent to a child's romance?  And even
were all this possible, were it possible that girls were not extravagant,
and that husbands had no common-sense, is it for me, Lord Vargrave, to be
a mendicant upon reluctant bounty,--a poor cousin, a pensioned
led-captain?  Heaven knows I have as little false pride as any man, but
still this is a degradation I cannot stoop to.  Besides, Caroline, I am
no miser, no Harpagon: I do not want wealth for wealth's sake, but for
the advantages it bestows,--respect, honour, position; and these I get as
the husband of the great heiress.  Should I get them as her dependant?
No: for more than six years I have built my schemes and shaped my conduct
according to one assured and definite object; and that object I shall not
now, at the eleventh hour, let slip from my hands.  Enough of this: you
will pass Brook-Green in returning from Cornwall; you will take Evelyn
with you to Paris,--leave the rest to me.  Fear no folly, no violence,
from my plans, whatever they may be: I work in the dark.  Nor do I
despair that Evelyn will love, that Evelyn will voluntarily accept me
yet: my disposition is sanguine; I look to the bright side of things; do
the same!"
Here their conference was interrupted by Lord Doltimore, who lounged
carelessly into the room, with his hat on one side.  "Ah, Vargrave, how
are you?  You will not forget the letters of introduction?  Where are you
going, Caroline?"
"Only to my own room, to put on my bonnet; the carriage will be here in a
few minutes."  And Caroline escaped.
"So you go to Cornwall to-morrow, Doltimore?"
"Yes; cursed bore! but Lady Elizabeth insists on seeing us, and I don't
object to a week's good shooting.  The old lady, too, has something to
leave, and Caroline had no dowry,--not that I care for it; but still
marriage is expensive."
"By the by, you will want the five thousand pounds you lent me?"
"Why, whenever it is convenient."
Say no more,--it shall be seen to.  Doltimore, I am very anxious that
Lady Doltimore's debut at Paris should be brilliant: everything depends
on falling into the right set.  For myself, I don't care about fashion,
and never did; but if I were married, and an idle man like you, it might
be different."
"Oh, you will be very useful to us when we return to London.  Meanwhile,