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‘Very true. Are we going to call upon your grandfather?’
‘Yes, and I fear he will prove to be very disagreeable.’
‘Are all your relatives disagreeable persons, Miss Trent?’ he enquired.
‘Certainly not! Mama, and my stepfather, and the children are the dearest creatures!’ she replied. ‘In fact, it is for them that I am going to Bath. If only my grandfather likes me better than Joseph, the boys may go to Eton, and Clara have lessons upon the pianoforte, and Mama another servant, and Papa – But this cannot interest you, sir!’
‘On the contrary. And is Joseph also bent on winning this fortune?’
‘Yes, and he does not need it in the least! You see, the case is that my grandfather quarrelled with both his daughters – my mama, and Joseph’s mama – because they married men he did not like. Mama says he was determined they should make splendid matches, and they did not. Mama ran away with my papa to Gretna Green – only fancy! He died when I was a baby, and I believe that he was not a very steady person. He was related to Lord Cleveland, and in the 1st Foot, only his family cast him off. So, I think, did the 1st Foot,’ she added reflectively. ‘Mama says he was very wild.’
‘Most of that family are,’ interpolated Sir Julian.
‘Oh, are they? I have never known them. Papa left poor Mama in sad straits, and if it had not been for my stepfather I don’t know what would have become of her. He married her, you see, and they are most happy! But Papa has a very small stipend, and there are five children, besides me, so that when my grandfather suddenly wrote to say that he felt his end to be approaching, and since he must leave his fortune to someone, I might go to spend Christmas with him, and perhaps he would leave it to me, it seemed as though it was my duty to go! And then I found that he must have sent for Joseph too, but I do think that he may like me better than Joseph, don’t you, sir?’
‘Miss Trent,’ said Sir Julian, ‘unless your grandfather is mad, you need have no doubts on that head!’
‘Yes, but I think he is!’ said Miss Trent candidly.
‘Who is he? What is his name?’
‘Kennet, and he lives in Laura Place.’
‘Good God, not the Miser of Bath?’
‘Oh, are you acquainted with him, sir?’
‘Only by reputation! Bath used to be full of tales of his oddities. I fear it is you who will not like him!’
‘No, but in such a cause one must stifle one’s feelings!’ said Miss Trent.
He agreed to it with becoming gravity, and for some miles entered in the fullest manner into all her plans for the advancement of her family.
The journey was a long one, and the weather inclement enough to have daunted most females, but Miss Trent remained cheerful throughout. Sir Julian, who had been sure, twenty-four hours earlier, that he had run through every emotion life could hold for him, realized by the time the outskirts of Bath were reached that he had fallen in love for the first time since his salad days.
It was dark when the curricle drew up before a house in Laura Place, and the street lamps had been lit. ‘Tired?’ Sir Julian said gently.
‘A very little,’ owned Miss Trent. ‘But you must be quite dead with fatigue, sir!’
‘I have never enjoyed a day more.’
Miss Trent said shyly: ‘I – I have not either!’
‘In that case,’ said Sir Julian, ‘let us go in and beard your grandfather!’
‘You too, sir?’ she asked doubtfully.
‘Certainly. I must ask his permission to pay my addresses to you.’
‘To – to – ? Oh!’ said Miss Trent in a faint voice.
‘Yes, may I do so?’
Miss Trent swallowed. ‘I have the most lowering feeling that I ought to say it is too sudden, or – or something of that nature,’ she confided.
‘Say what is in your heart! Would it displease you to receive my addresses?’
‘Well, no, it – it wouldn’t displease me – precisely!’ confessed Miss Trent, blushing in the darkness.
