The next time Mr. Gibson found Molly alone, he began,--"Well! and how
do you like the new relation that is to be?"
"It's difficult to say. I think he's very nice in all his bits,
but--rather dull on the whole."
"I think him perfection," said Mr. Gibson, to Molly's surprise;
but in an instant afterwards she saw that he had been speaking
ironically. He went on. "I don't wonder she preferred him to Roger
Hamley. Such scents! such gloves! And then his hair and his cravat!"
"Now, papa, you're not fair. He is a great deal more than that. One
could see that he had very good feeling; and he is very handsome, and
very much attached to her."
"So was Roger. However, I must confess I shall be only too glad to
have her married. She's a girl who'll always have some love-affair on
hand, and will always be apt to slip through a man's fingers if he
doesn't look sharp; as I was saying to Roger--"
"You have seen him, then, since he was here?"
"Met him in the street."
"How was he?"
"I don't suppose he'd been going through the pleasantest thing in
the world; but he'll get over it before long. He spoke with sense
and resignation, and didn't say much about it; but one could see
that he was feeling it pretty sharply. He's had three months to
think it over, remember. The Squire, I should guess, is showing more
indignation. He is boiling over, that any one should reject his son!
The enormity of the sin never seems to have been apparent to him
till now, when he sees how Roger is affected by it. Indeed, with the
exception of myself, I don't know one reasonable father; eh, Molly?"
Whatever else Mr. Henderson might be, he was an impatient lover; he
wanted to marry Cynthia directly--next week--the week after; at any
rate before the long vacation, so that they could go abroad at once.
Trousseaux, and preliminary ceremonies, he gave to the winds. Mr.
Gibson, generous as usual, called Cynthia aside a morning or two
after her engagement, and put a hundred-pound note into her hands.
"There! that's to pay your expenses to Russia and back. I hope you'll
find your pupils obedient."
To his surprise, and rather to his discomfiture, Cynthia threw her
arms round his neck and kissed him.
"You are the kindest person I know," said she; "and I don't know how
to thank you in words."
"If you tumble my shirt-collars again in that way, I'll charge you
for the washing. Just now, too, when I'm trying so hard to be trim
and elegant, like your Mr. Henderson."