'It is distasteful,' said Dolly; 'but in truth I am so downright,--what you may call enamoured--'
'Don't talk such stuff as that here,' said Silverbridge, jumping up. 'I won't have it.'
'But I am. There is nothing I wouldn't do to get her. Of course it's a good match for her. I've got three separate properties; and when the governor goes off I shall have a clear fifteen thousand a year.'
'Oh, bother!'
'Of course that's nothing to you, but it is a very tidy income for a commoner. And how is she to do better?'
'I don't know how she could do much worse,' said Silverbridge in a transport of rage. Then he pulled his moustache in vexation, angry with himself that he should have allowed himself to say even a word on so preposterous a supposition. Isabel Boncassen and Dolly Longstaff! It was Titania and Bottom over again. It was absolutely necessary that he should get rid of this intruder, and he began to be afraid that he could not do this without using language which would have been uncivil. 'Upon my word,' he said, 'I think you had better not talk about it any more. The young lady is one for whom I have a very great respect.'
'I mean to marry her,' said Dolly, thinking to vindicate himself.
'You might as well think of marrying one of the stars.'
'One of the stars!'
'Or a royal princess.'
'Well! Perhaps that is your opinion, but I can't say that I agree with you. I don't see why she shouldn't take me. I can give her a position which you may call A1 out of the Peerage. I can bring her into society. I can make an English lady of her.'
'You can't make anything of her,--except to insult her,--and me too by talking of her.'
'I don't quite understand this,' said the unfortunate lover getting up from his seat. 'Very likely she won't have me. Perhaps she has told you so.'
'She never mentioned your name to me in her life. I don't suppose she remembers your existence.'
'But I say that there can be no insult in such a one as me asking such a one as her to be my wife. To say that she doesn't remember my existence is absurd.'
'Why should I be troubled with all this?'
'Because I think you are making a fool of her, and because I am honest. That's why,' said Dolly with much energy. There was something in this which partly reconciled Silverbridge to his despised rival. There was a touch of truth about the man, though he was so utterly mistaken in his ideas. 'I want you to give over in order that I may try again. I don't think you ought to keep a girl from her promotion, merely for the fun of a flirtation.
Perhaps you're fond of her;--but you won't marry her. I am fond of her, and I shall.'
After a minute's pause, Silverbridge resolved that he would be magnanimous. 'Miss Boncassen is going to be my wife,' he said.
'Your wife!'
'Yes;--my wife. And now I think you will see that nothing further can be said about this matter.'
'Duchess of Omnium!'
'She will be Lady Silverbridge.'
'Oh; of course she'll be that first. Then I've got nothing further to say. I'm not going to enter myself to run against you. Only I shouldn't have believed it if anybody else had told me.'
'Such is my good fortune.'