One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
Nataly enfolded him in a homely smile. ‘A country-house?
We go and see it to-morrow?’
‘And you’ve been pining for a country home, my dear soul.’
‘After the summer six weeks, the house in London does
not seem a home to return to.’
‘And next day, Nataly draws five thousand pounds for the
first sketch of the furniture.’
‘There is the Creckholt …’ she had a difficulty in saying.
‘Part of it may do. Lakelands requires—but you will see
to-morrow.’
After a close shutting of her eyes, she rejoined: ‘It is not a
cottage?’
‘Well, dear, no: when the Slave of the Lamp takes to building,
he does not run up cottages. And we did it without
magic, all in a year; which is quite as good as a magical trick
in a night.’ He drew her close to him. ‘When was it my dear
girl guessed me at work?’
‘It was the other dear girl. Nesta is the guesser.’
‘You were two best of souls to keep from bothering me;
and I might have had to fib; and we neither of us like that.’
He noticed a sidling of her look. ‘More than the circumstances
oblige:—to be frank. But now we can speak of them.
Wait—and the change comes; and opportunely, I have found.
It’s true we have waited long; my darling has had her worries.
However, it ‘s here at last. Prepare yourself. I speak positively.
You have to brace up for one sharp twitch—the
woman’s portion! as Natata says—and it’s over.’ He looked
into her eyes for comprehension; and not finding inquiry,
resumed: ‘Just in time for the entry into Lakelands. With
the pronouncement of the decree, we present the licence …
at an altar we’ve stood before, in spirit … one of the ladies of
your family to support you:—why not? Not even then?’
‘No, Victor; they have cast me off.’
‘Count on my cousins, the Duvidney ladies. Then we can
say, that those two good old spinsters are less narrow than
the Dreightons. I have to confess I rather think I was to
blame for leaving Creckholt. Only, if I see my girl wounded,
I hate the place that did the mischief. You and Fredi will clap
hands for the country about Lakelands.’
‘Have you heard from her … of her … is it anything, Victor?’
Nataly asked him shyly; with not much of hope, but
some readiness to be inflated. The prospect of an entry into
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