"If she were another lady,"she said,"I should swear some gallant had robbed her of it;but,forsooth,she does not allow them to come near enough for such sport,and with five feet of hair wound up in coronals,how could a man unwind a lock,even if 'twas permitted him to stand at her very side."Two years passed,and the beauty had no greater fields to conquer than those she found in the country,since her father,Sir Jeoffry,had not the money to take her to town,he becoming more and more involved and so fallen into debt that it was even whispered that at times it went hard with him to keep even the poor household he had.
Mistress Clorinda's fortunes the gentry of the neighbourhood discussed with growing interest and curiosity.What was like to become of her great gifts and powers in the end,if she could never show them to the great world,and have the chance to carry her splendid wares to the fashionable market where there were men of quality and wealth who would be like to bid for them.She had not chosen to accept any of those who had offered themselves so far,and it was believed that for some reason she had held off my lord of Dunstanwolde in his suit.'Twas evident that he admired her greatly,and why he had not already made her his countess was a sort of mystery which was productive of many discussions and bore much talking over.Some said that,with all her beauty and his admiration,he was wary and waited,and some were pleased to say that the reason he waited was because the young lady herself contrived that he should,it being her desire to make an open conquest of Sir John Oxon,and show him to the world as her slave,before she made up her mind to make even a much greater match.Some hinted that for all her disdainfulness and haughty pride she would marry Sir John if he asked her,but that he being as brilliant a beau as she a beauty,he was too fond of his pleasures and his gay town life to give them up even to a goddess who had no fortune.His own had not been a great one,and he had squandered it magnificently,his extravagances being renowned in the world of fashion,and having indeed founded for him his reputation.
It was,however,still his way to accept frequent hospitalities from his kinsman Eldershawe,and Sir Jeoffry was always rejoiced enough to secure him as his companion for a few days when he could lure him from the dissipation of the town.At such times it never failed that Mistress Wimpole and poor Anne kept their guard.Clorinda never allowed them to relax their vigilance,and Mistress Wimpole ceased to feel afraid,and became accustomed to her duties,but Anne never did so.She looked always her palest and ugliest when Sir John was in the house,and she would glance with sad wonder and timid adoration from him to Clorinda;but sometimes when she looked at Sir John her plain face would grow crimson,and once or twice he caught her at the folly,and when she dropped her eyes overwhelmed with shame,he faintly smiled to himself,seeing in her a new though humble conquest.
There came a day when in the hunting-field there passed from mouth to mouth a rumour,and Sir Jeoffry,hearing it,came pounding over on his big black horse to his daughter and told it to her in great spirits.
"He is a sly dog,John Oxon,"he said,a broad grin on his rubicund face."This very week he comes to us,and he and I are cronies,yet he has blabbed nothing of what is being buzzed about by all the world.""He has learned how to keep a closed mouth,"said Mistress Clorinda,without asking a question.
"But 'tis marriage he is so mum about,bless ye!"said Sir Jeoffry.
"And that is not a thing to be hid long.He is to be shortly married,they say.My lady,his mother,has found him a great fortune in a new beauty but just come to town.She hath great estates in the West Indies,as well as a fine fortune in England--and all the world is besieging her;but Jack hath come and bowed sighing before her,and writ some verses,and borne her off from them all.""'Tis time,"said Clorinda,"that he should marry some woman who can pay his debts and keep him out of the spunging house,for to that he will come if he does not play his cards with skill."Sir Jeoffry looked at her askance and rubbed his red chin.
"I wish thou hadst liked him,Clo,"he said,"and ye had both had fortunes to match.I love the fellow,and ye would have made a handsome pair."Mistress Clorinda laughed,sitting straight in her saddle,her fine eyes unblenching,though the sun struck them.
"We had fortunes to match,"she said--"I was a beggar and he was a spendthrift.Here comes Lord Dunstanwolde."And as the gentleman rode near,it seemed to his dazzled eyes that the sun so shone down upon her because she was a goddess and drew it from the heavens.
In the west wing of the Hall 'twas talked of between Mistress Wimpole and her charges,that a rumour of Sir John Oxon's marriage was afloat.
"Yet can I not believe it,"said Mistress Margery;"for if ever a gentleman was deep in love,though he bitterly strove to hide it,'twas Sir John,and with Mistress Clorinda.""But she,"faltered Anne,looking pale and even agitated--"she was always disdainful to him and held him at arm's length.I--I wished she would have treated him more kindly.""'Tis not her way to treat men kindly,"said Mistress Wimpole.
But whether the rumour was true or false--and there were those who bestowed no credit upon it,and said it was mere town talk,and that the same things had been bruited abroad before--it so chanced that Sir John paid no visit to his relative or to Sir Jeoffry for several months.'Twas heard once that he had gone to France,and at the French Court was making as great a figure as he had made at the English one,but of this even his kinsman Lord Eldershawe could speak no more certainly than he could of the first matter.
