Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/567



ES, it is a tolerably good match," said Mrs. Kinniside, with an air of quiet triumph, leaning back in her chair and coaxing the seams of her glove daintily. "I always thought the dear girl would do well, and the result has proved me correct."

"It must be a great comfort to you—a great weight off your mind," said Mr. Carter, significantly. Mr. Carter was the family solicitor, and knew what he was saying.

Mrs. Kinniside looked up uneasily — perhaps, though, rather annoyed than uneasy. "The satisfactory settlement of a portionless daughter is always a relief, always a heavy weight taken off a mother's mind," she returned, coldly.

"Just so," said Mr. Carter; "and, with all that is behind, doubly so to you."

"I wish, Mr. Carter," began the lady, fretfully—

"That I would not allude to disagreeable subjects?" interrupted Mr. Carter.

"Well, why do you?" continued Mrs. Kinniside, in the same fretful tone; "it is unkind and ill-bred, and quite unnecessary, I can assure you!"

"I am not so sure of that," said the lawyer, with meaning; "we all need to have our memories refreshed at times."

"Not I, at all events, Mr. Carter; and I should think that no one, haunted with so deep a shadow as that which lies over this miserable family, could forget it, however bright the present sunshine."

"Perhaps not, dear madam; but the question is, do others forget it?"

"I am sure I do not know what you mean, Mr. Carter," answered Mrs. Kinniside, angrily; "and I think we had better drop the conversation and return to business."

The solicitor bowed, with a disagreeable smile round his thin, close lips, and the discussion on Clementina's settlements, which had been interrupted by this little passage of arms, went on.

Mr. Carter was right; young Sir James Walshe was a good match for Clementina Kinniside. A girl without a fortune, without influential friends, of no superb attainments, and of a manner of beauty which, however lovely, was not popular—a girl, in fact, though sweet, and pure, and good, yet made up of negatives, had no right, as the matrimonial world reads rights, to expect that a rich, handsome, well-bred young baronet, the match of the place, would select her out of all his possibilities, and give to one of the humbler the prize which the proudest would have been glad to accept.

How it had been brought about, no one could exactly understand; but, whatever the means, there was the result; and Mr. Carter, at Holly Lane drawing out the marriage settlements, expressed Mrs. Kinniside's triumph in the way best understood by the mothers of marriageable daughters. But the lawyer was not quite so well satisfied. He knew his client, and he thought it more than