Page:The Awkward Age (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1899).djvu/232

THE AWKWARD AGE "To such a tune that I've made up my mind. I want her so to marry—" But on the odd little quaver of longing with which he brought it out the old man fairly hung.

"Well?" said Vanderbank.

"Well, so that on the day she does she'll come into the interest of a considerable sum of money—already very decently invested—that I've determined to settle upon her."

Vanderbank's instant admiration flushed across the room. "How awfully jolly of you—how beautiful!"

"Oh, there's a way to show practically your appreciation of it."

But Vanderbank, for enthusiasm, scarcely heard him. "I can't tell you how admirable I think you." Then eagerly, "Does Nanda know it?" he demanded.

Mr. Longdon, after an hesitation, spoke with comparative dryness. "My idea has been that, for the present, you alone shall."

Vanderbank also hesitated. "No other man?"

His companion looked still graver. "I need scarcely say that I depend on you to keep the fact to yourself."

"Absolutely, then, and utterly. But that won't prevent what I think of it. Nothing, for a long time, has given me such joy."

Shining and sincere, he had held for a minute Mr. Longdon's eyes. "Why, you do care for her."

"Immensely. Never, I think, so much as now. That sounds of a grossness, doesn't it?" he laughed. "But your announcement really lights up the mind."

His friend, for a moment, almost glowed with his pleasure. "The sum I've settled upon would be, I may mention, substantial, and I should of course be prepared with a clear statement—a very definite pledge—of my intentions." 222