第52章

ARTHUR FLETCHER.

It may, I think, be a question whether the two old men acted wisely in having Arthur Fletcher at Wharton Hall when Emily arrived there.The story of his love for Miss Wharton, as far as it had yet gone, must shortly be told.He had been the second son, as he was now the second brother, of a Hertfordshire squire endowed with much larger property than that belonging to Sir Alured.John Fletcher, Esq., of Longbarns, some twelve miles from Wharton, was a considerable man in Hertfordshire.This present squire had married Sir Alured's eldest daughter, and the younger brother had, almost since they were children together, been known to be in love with Emily Wharton.All the Fletchers and everything belonging to them were almost worshipped at Wharton Hall.There had been marriages between the two families certainly as far back as the time of Henry VII, and they were accustomed to speak, if not of alliances, at any rate of friendships, much anterior to that.As regards family, therefore, the pretensions of a Fletcher would always be held to be good by a Wharton.But this Fletcher was the very pearl of the Fletcher tribe.Though a younger brother, he had a very pleasant little fortune of his own.Though born to comfortable circumstances, he had worked so hard in his younger days as to have already made for himself a name at the bar.He was a fair-haired, handsome fellow, with sharp, eager eyes, with an aquiline nose and just that shape of mouth and chin which such men as Abel Wharton regarded as characteristic of good blood.He was rather thin, about five feet ten in height, and had the character of being one of the best horsemen in the county.He was one of the most popular men in Hertfordshire, and at Longbarns was almost as much thought of as the squire himself.He certainly was not the man to be taken, from his appearance, for a forlorn lover.He looked like one of those happy sons of the gods who are born to success.No young man of his age was more courted both by men and women.There was no one who in his youth had suffered fewer troubles from those causes of trouble which visit English young men,--occasional impecuniosity, sternness of parents, native shyness, fear of ridicule, inability of speech, and a general pervading sense of inferiority combined with an ardent desire to rise to a feeling of conscious superiority.So much had been done for him by nature that he was never called upon to pretend to anything.Throughout the county those were the lucky men--and those too were the happy girls,--who were allowed to call him Arthur.And yet this paragon was vainly in love with Emily Wharton, who, in the way of love, would have nothing to say to him, preferring,--as her father once said in extreme wrath,--a greasy Jew adventurer out of the gutter!

And now it had been thought expedient to have him down to Wharton, although the lawyer's regular summer vacation had not yet commenced.But there was some excuse made for this, over and above the emergency of his own love, in the fact that his brother John, with Mrs Fletcher, was also to be at the Hall,--so that there was gathered there a great family party of the Whartons and Fletchers; for there was present there also old Mrs Fletcher, a magnificently aristocratic and high-minded old lady, with snow-white hair, and lace worth fifty guineas a yard, who was as anxious as everybody else that her younger son should marry Emily Wharton.Something of the truth as to Emily Wharton's 60,000pounds was, of course, known to the Longbarns people.Not that Iwould have it inferred that they wanted their darling to sell himself for money.The Fletchers were great people, with great spirits, too good in every way for such baseness.But when love, old friendship, good birth, together with every other propriety as to age, manners, and conduct, can be joined in money, such a combination will always be thought pleasant.

When Arthur reached the Hall it was felt to be necessary that a word should be said to him as to that wretched interloper, Ferdinand Lopez.Arthur had not of late been often in Manchester Square.Though always most cordially welcomed by old Wharton, and treated with kindness by Emily Wharton short of that love which he desired, he had during the last three or four months abstained from frequenting the house.During the past winter, and early in the spring, he had pressed his suit--but had been rejected, with warmest assurances of all friendship short of love.It had then been arranged between him and the elder Whartons that they should all meet down in the Hall, and there had been sympathetic expressions of hope that all might yet be well.But at that time little or nothing had been known of Ferdinand Lopez.

But now the old baronet spoke to him, the father having deputed the loathsome task to his friend,--being unwilling himself even to hint at his daughter's disgrace.'Oh, yes, I've heard of him,' said Arthur Fletcher.'I met him with Everett and I don't think I ever took a stronger dislike to a man.Everett seems very fond of him.' The baronet mournfully shook his head.It was sad to find that Whartons could go so far astray.'He goes to Carlton Terrace,--to the Duchess's,' continued the young man.

'I don't think that is very much in his favour,' said the baronet.

'I don't know that it is, sir,--only they try to catch all fish in that net that are of any use.'

'Do you go there, Arthur?'

'I should if I were asked, I suppose.I don't know who wouldn't.

You see it's a Coalition affair, so that everybody is able to feel that he is supporting his party by going to the Duchess's.'

'I hate Coalitions,' said the baronet.'I think they are disgraceful.'

'Well;--yes; I don't know.The coach has to be driven somehow.