He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (books you need to read .txt) 📕

‘Oh yes of course,’ she said, with a little giggle, and then a sob, and

then a flood of tears.

‘Dear Bella feels these things so strongly,’ said Mrs French.

‘We have never been parted yet,’ said Camilla. Then Arabella tapped the

head of the sofa three or four times sharply with her knuckles. It was

the only protest against the reading of the scene which Camilla had

given of which she was capable at that moment. After that Mrs French

gave out the tea, Arabella curled herself upon the sofa as though she

were asleep, and the two lovers settled down to proper lover-like

conversation.

The reader may be sure that Camilla was not slow in making the fact of

her engagement notorious through the city. It was not probably true

that the tidings of her success had anything to do with Miss Stanbury’s

illness; but it was reported by many that such was the case. It was in

November that the arrangement was made, and it certainly was true that

Miss Stanbury was rather ill about the same time. ‘You know, you

naughty Lothario, that you did give her some ground to hope that she

might dispose of her unfortunate niece,’ said Camilla playfully to her

own one, when this illness was discussed between them. ‘But you are

caught now, and your wings are clipped, and you are never to be a

naughty Lothario again.’ The clerical Don Juan bore it all, awkwardly

indeed, but with good humour, and declared that all his troubles of

that sort were over, now and for ever. Nevertheless he did not name the

day, and Camilla began to feel that there might be occasion for a

little more of that imperious roughness which she had at her command.

November was nearly over and nothing had been fixed about the day.

Arabella never condescended to speak to her sister on the subject; but

on more than one occasion made some inquiry of her mother. And she came

to perceive, or to think that she perceived, that her mother was still

anxious on the subject. ‘I shouldn’t wonder if he wasn’t off some day

now,’ she said at last to her mother.

‘Don’t say anything so dreadful, Bella.’

‘It would serve Cammy quite right, and it’s just what he’s likely to

do.’

‘It would kill me,’ said the mother.

‘I don’t know about killing,’ said Arabella; ‘it’s nothing to what I’ve

had to go through. I shouldn’t pretend to be sorry if he were to go to

Hong-Kong tomorrow.’

But Mr Gibson had no idea of going to Hong-Kong. He was simply carrying

out his little scheme for securing the advantages of a ‘long day’. He

was fully resolved to be married, and was contented to think that his

engagement was the best thing for him. To one or two male friends he

spoke of Camilla as the perfection of female virtue, and entertained no

smallest idea of ultimate escape. But a ‘long day’ is often a

convenience. A bill at three months sits easier on a man than one at

sixty days; and a bill at six months is almost as little of a burden as

no bill at all.

But Camilla was resolved that some day should be fixed. ‘Thomas,’ she

said to her lover one morning, as they were walking home together after

service at the cathedral, ‘isn’t this rather a fool’s Paradise of

ours?’

‘How a fool’s Paradise?’ asked the happy Thomas.

‘What I mean is, dearest, that we ought to fix something. Mamma is

getting uneasy about her own plans.’

‘In what way, dearest?’

‘About a thousand things. She can’t arrange anything till our plans are

made. Of course there are little troubles about money when people ain’t

rich.’ Then it occurred to her that this might seem to be a plea for

postponing rather than for hurrying the marriage, and she mended her

argument. ‘The truth is, Thomas, she wants to know when the day is to

be fixed, and I’ve promised to ask. She said she’d ask you herself, but

I wouldn’t let her do that.’

‘We must think about it, of course,’ said Thomas.

‘But, my dear, there has been plenty of time for thinking. What do you

say to January?’ This was on the last day of November.

‘January!’ exclaimed Thomas, in a tone that betrayed no triumph. ‘I

couldn’t get my services arranged for in January.’

‘I thought a clergyman could always manage that for his marriage,’ said

Camilla.

‘Not in January. Besides, I was thinking you would like to be away in

warmer weather.’

They were still in November, and he was thinking of postponing it till

the summer! Camilla immediately perceived how necessary it was that she

should be plain with him. ‘We shall not have warm weather, as you call

it, for a very long time, Thomas and I don’t think that it would be

wise to wait for the weather at all. Indeed, I’ve begun to get my

things for doing it in the winter. Mamma said that she was sure January

would be the very latest. And it isn’t as though we had to get

furniture or anything of that kind. Of course a lady shouldn’t be

pressing.’ She smiled sweetly and leaned on his arm as she said this.

‘But I hate all girlish nonsense and that kind of thing. It is such a

bore to be kept waiting. I’m sure there’s nothing to prevent it coming

off in February.’

The 31st of March was fixed before they reached Heavitree, and Camilla

went into her mother’s house a happy woman. But Mr Gibson, as he went

home, thought that he had been hardly used. Here was a girl who hadn’t

a shilling of money, not a shilling till her mother died, and who already

talked about his house, and his furniture, and his income as if it were

all her own! Circumstanced as she was, what right had she to press for

an early day? He was quite sure that Arabella would have been more

discreet and less exacting. He was very angry with his dear Cammy as he

went across the Close to his house.