always viewed the world through a satirical eye.
“Then I beg leave to press my suit,” he said. “Miss Fry, please marry me. Oh, very well. We are both young. We both admitted last night that we dream of independence and of being alone to enjoy it, unencumbered by spouse or children. But we also recognized that dreams are not always reality. This is reality. You have a frightening problem; I feel responsible for helping solve it, and I have the means of solving it. But our dreams need not completely die if we marry. Quite the contrary. Let us come to some sort of
arrangement
that will benefit us both in the immediate future and offer us both hope for the longer term future.”
She stared back at him. Temptation gnawed at her. But she did not understand quite what he offered.
“In what way,” she asked him, “would marriage to me benefit
you,
Lord Darleigh, either in the shorter term or the longer? Apart from soothing your conscience, that is. It is perfectly obvious how it would benefit me. There is not even any point in making a list. But what would such an arrangement, as you call it, offer you? And what do you mean by that word—
arrangement
? How does it differ from just plain marriage?”
Marriage to her would offer him absolutely nothing whatsoever. That was what. Again, there was no point at all in making a list—there would be nothing to put on it. It would be a blank page with a wistful little mouse gazing up at the emptiness from a bottom corner.
He felt behind him for the arms of the chair to which the Reverend Parsons had led him and sat down at last. He looked a little less intimidating. Or perhaps not. For now there was an illusion, as there had been last evening, that they were just two friendly equals having a cozy chat. Yet … Well, there was nothing equal about them except a basic gentility of birth.
“If one considers the facts purely from a practical and material perspective,” he said, “ours would be an unequal match. You have nothing and no one and nowhere to go and no money. I have property and fortune and more loving relatives than I know what to do with.”
And that was that. There was really no more to be said.
She stared into the abyss and felt as though her stomach had already descended into it.
“There is no other perspective,” she said.
“Yes, there is.” He was silent again for a few moments. “I ran from home six weeks or so ago, as you have heard. I have not made a good start on my life as Viscount Darleigh of Middlebury Park. I have allowed myself to be ruled by all the well-meaning people surrounding me there. And now they have decided it is time I married, and they will not be satisfied until the deed is accomplished. I want to change things, Miss Fry. How much easier it would have been if I had asserted myself three years ago. But I did not, and there is no going back. So where do I start now? Perhaps in taking a wife home with me. Perhaps I will have the courage to start again and start differently if I have someone at my side who is undeniably mistress of Middlebury. Perhaps it is the very thing I need. Perhaps you will be doing me as great a favor as I will be doing you. If I can persuade you to agree, that is.”
“But to choose a stranger,” she said.
“It is precisely what my relatives wished me to do six weeks ago,” he said. “She had been brought to Middlebury by parents who needed to marry her well. She had no personal wish to be there. We had no previous acquaintance. She was a sacrificial lamb. She told me she
understood
and she
did not mind
.”
“Ah,” she said. “But clearly she did?”
“Would
you
mind?” he asked her.
“Marrying a blind man? No,” she said. But what was she saying? She was not agreeing to marry him. “But I would mind forcing you into something you do not want to do, with someone you do not know and someone who could bring nothing into the marriage except, perhaps, that she really
would
not mind.”
He ran
“Then I beg leave to press my suit,” he said. “Miss Fry, please marry me. Oh, very well. We are both young. We both admitted last night that we dream of independence and of being alone to enjoy it, unencumbered by spouse or children. But we also recognized that dreams are not always reality. This is reality. You have a frightening problem; I feel responsible for helping solve it, and I have the means of solving it. But our dreams need not completely die if we marry. Quite the contrary. Let us come to some sort of
arrangement
that will benefit us both in the immediate future and offer us both hope for the longer term future.”
She stared back at him. Temptation gnawed at her. But she did not understand quite what he offered.
“In what way,” she asked him, “would marriage to me benefit
you,
Lord Darleigh, either in the shorter term or the longer? Apart from soothing your conscience, that is. It is perfectly obvious how it would benefit me. There is not even any point in making a list. But what would such an arrangement, as you call it, offer you? And what do you mean by that word—
arrangement
? How does it differ from just plain marriage?”
Marriage to her would offer him absolutely nothing whatsoever. That was what. Again, there was no point at all in making a list—there would be nothing to put on it. It would be a blank page with a wistful little mouse gazing up at the emptiness from a bottom corner.
He felt behind him for the arms of the chair to which the Reverend Parsons had led him and sat down at last. He looked a little less intimidating. Or perhaps not. For now there was an illusion, as there had been last evening, that they were just two friendly equals having a cozy chat. Yet … Well, there was nothing equal about them except a basic gentility of birth.
“If one considers the facts purely from a practical and material perspective,” he said, “ours would be an unequal match. You have nothing and no one and nowhere to go and no money. I have property and fortune and more loving relatives than I know what to do with.”
And that was that. There was really no more to be said.
She stared into the abyss and felt as though her stomach had already descended into it.
“There is no other perspective,” she said.
“Yes, there is.” He was silent again for a few moments. “I ran from home six weeks or so ago, as you have heard. I have not made a good start on my life as Viscount Darleigh of Middlebury Park. I have allowed myself to be ruled by all the well-meaning people surrounding me there. And now they have decided it is time I married, and they will not be satisfied until the deed is accomplished. I want to change things, Miss Fry. How much easier it would have been if I had asserted myself three years ago. But I did not, and there is no going back. So where do I start now? Perhaps in taking a wife home with me. Perhaps I will have the courage to start again and start differently if I have someone at my side who is undeniably mistress of Middlebury. Perhaps it is the very thing I need. Perhaps you will be doing me as great a favor as I will be doing you. If I can persuade you to agree, that is.”
“But to choose a stranger,” she said.
“It is precisely what my relatives wished me to do six weeks ago,” he said. “She had been brought to Middlebury by parents who needed to marry her well. She had no personal wish to be there. We had no previous acquaintance. She was a sacrificial lamb. She told me she
understood
and she
did not mind
.”
“Ah,” she said. “But clearly she did?”
“Would
you
mind?” he asked her.
“Marrying a blind man? No,” she said. But what was she saying? She was not agreeing to marry him. “But I would mind forcing you into something you do not want to do, with someone you do not know and someone who could bring nothing into the marriage except, perhaps, that she really
would
not mind.”
He ran
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