Essential Novelists - Maria Edgeworth. Maria Edgeworth

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      THE BARONET DETERMINED the next day upon the grand attack. He waited upon Miss Portman with the certainty of being favourably received; but he was, nevertheless, somewhat embarrassed to know how to begin the conversation, when he found himself alone with the lady.

      He twirled and twisted a short stick that he held in his hand, and put it into and out of his boot twenty times, and at last he began with —“Lady Delacour’s not gone to Harrowgate yet?”

      “No: her ladyship has not yet felt herself well enough to undertake the journey.”

      “That was a cursed unlucky overturn! She may thank Clarence Hervey for that: it’s like him — he thinks he’s a better judge of horses, and wine, and every thing else, than any body in the world. Damme, now if I don’t believe he thinks nobody else but himself has eyes enough to see that a fine woman’s a fine woman; but I’d have him to know, that Miss Belinda Portman has been Sir Philip Baddely’s toast these two months.”

      As this intelligence did not seem to make the expected impression upon Miss Belinda Portman, Sir Philip had recourse again to his little stick, with which he went through the sword exercise. After a silence of some minutes, and after walking to the window, and back again, as if to look for sense, he exclaimed, “How is Mrs. Stanhope now, pray, Miss Portman? and your sister, Mrs. Tollemache? she was the finest woman, I thought, the first winter she came out, that ever I saw, damme. Have you ever been told that you’re like her?”

      “Never, sir.”

      “Oh, damn it then, but you are; only ten times handsomer.”

      “Ten times handsomer than the finest woman you ever saw, Sir Philip?” said Belinda, smiling.

      “Than the finest woman I had ever seen then,” said Sir Philip; “for, damme, I did not know what it was to be in love then“ (here the baronet heaved an audible sigh): “I always laughed at love, and all that, then, and marriage particularly. I’ll trouble you for Mrs. Stanhope’s direction, Miss Portman; I believe, to do the thing in style, I ought to write to her before I speak to you.”

      Belinda looked at him with astonishment; and laying down the pencil with which she had just begun to write a direction to Mrs. Stanhope, she said, “Perhaps, Sir Philip, to do the thing in style, I ought to pretend at this instant not to understand you; but such false delicacy might mislead you: permit me, therefore, to say, that if I have any concern in the letter which you, are going to write to my aunt Stanhope ——”

      “Well guessed!” interrupted Sir Philip: “to be sure you have, and you’re a charming girl — damn me if you aren’t — for meeting my ideas in this way, which will save a cursed deal of trouble,” added the polite lover, seating himself on the sofa, beside Belinda.

      “To prevent your giving yourself any further trouble then, sir, on my account,” said Miss Portman ——

      “Nay, damme, don’t catch at that unlucky word, trouble, nor look so cursed angry; though it becomes you, too, uncommonly, and I like pride in a handsome woman, if it was only for variety’s sake, for it’s not what one meets with often, now-a-days. As to trouble, all I meant was, the trouble of writing to Mrs. Stanhope, which of course I thank you for saving me; for to be sure, I’d rather (and you can’t blame me for that) have my answer from your own charming lips, if it was only for the pleasure of seeing you blush in this heavenly sort of style.”

      “To put an end to this heavenly sort of style, sir,” said Belinda, withdrawing her hand, which the baronet took as if he was confident of its being his willing prize, “I must explicitly assure you, that it is not in my power to encourage your addresses. I am fully sensible,” added Miss Portman, “of the honour Sir Philip Baddely has done me, and I hope he will not be offended by the frankness of my answer.”

      “You can’t be in earnest, Miss Portman!” exclaimed the astonished baronet.

      “Perfectly in earnest, Sir Philip.”

      “Confusion seize me,” cried he, starting up, “if this isn’t the most extraordinary thing I ever heard! Will you do me the honour, madam, to let me know your particular objections to Sir Philip Baddely?”

      “My objections,” said Belinda, “cannot be obviated, and therefore it would be useless to state them.”

      “Nay, pray, ma’am, do me the favour — I only ask for information sake — is it to Sir Philip Baddely’s fortune, 15,000l. a year, you object, or to his family, or to his person? — Oh, curse it!” said he, changing his tone, “you’re only quizzing me to see how I should look — damn me, you did it too well, you little coquet!”

      Belinda again assured him that she was entirely in earnest, and that she was incapable of the sort of coquetry which he ascribed to her.

      “Oh, damme, ma’am, then I’ve no more to say — a coquet is a thing I understand as well as another, and if we had been only СКАЧАТЬ