'An exceedingly small number of years,' said Louis drily. 'Now the
Bishop is at least fifteen years older than you, and on that account, no
less than on others, is an excellent match. You would be head of the
church in this diocese: what more can you require after these years of
miserable obscurity? In addition, you would escape that minor thorn in
the flesh of bishops' wives, of being only "Mrs." while their husbands
are peers.' She was not listening; his previous observation still detained her
thoughts.
'Louis,' she said, 'in the case of a woman marrying a man much younger
than herself, does he get to dislike her, even if there has been a social
advantage to him in the union?' 'Yes,--not a whit less. Ask any person of experience. But what of that? Let's talk of our own affairs. You say you have no thought of the
Bishop. And yet if he had stayed here another day or two he would have
proposed to you straight off.' 'Seriously, Louis, I could not accept him.' 'Why not?' 'I don't love him.' 'Oh, oh, I like those words!' cried Louis, throwing himself back in his
chair and looking at the ceiling in satirical enjoyment. 'A woman who at
two-and-twenty married for convenience, at thirty talks of not marrying
without love; the rule of inverse, that is, in which more requires less,
and less requires more. As your only brother, older than yourself, and
more experienced, I insist that you encourage the Bishop.' 'Don't quarrel with me, Louis!' she said piteously. 'We don't know that he thinks anything of me,--we only guess.' 'I know it,--and you shall hear how I know. I am of a curious and
conjectural nature, as you are aware. Last night, when everybody had
gone to bed, I stepped out for a five minutes' smoke on the lawn, and
walked down to where you get near the vicarage windows. While I was
there in the dark one of them opened, and Bishop Helmsdale leant out.
The illuminated oblong of your window shone him full in the face between the
trees, and presently your shadow crossed it. He waved his hand, and
murmured some tender words, though what they were exactly I could not
hear.' 'What a vague, imaginary story,--as if he could know my shadow!
Besides, a man of the Bishop's dignity wouldn't have done such a thing. When I
knew him as a younger man he was not at all romantic, and he's not likely
to have grown so now.' 'That's just what he is likely to have done. No lover is so extreme a
specimen of the species as an old lover. Come, Viviette, no more of this
fencing. I have entered into the project heart and soul--so much that I
have postponed my departure till the matter is well under way.' 'Louis--my dear Louis--you will bring me into some disagreeable position!' said she, clasping her hands. 'I do entreat you not to
interfere or do anything rash about me. The step is impossible. I have
something to tell you some day. I must live on, and endure--' 'Everything except this penury,' replied Louis, unmoved. 'Come, I have begun the campaign by inviting Bishop Helmsdale, and I'll take the
responsibility of carrying it on. All I ask of you is not to make a
ninny of yourself. Come, give me your promise!' 'No, I cannot,--I don't know how to! I only know one thing,--that I am in no hurry--' '"No hurry" be hanged! Agree, like a good sister, to charm the Bishop.' 'I must consider!' she replied, with perturbed evasiveness.