Sink or Swim? , Volume I by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

"Do any of you happen to know when Arthur is going to be married?"

The question was Lady Millicent's, and she asked it of her three younger / children one day towards the end of May, when Arthur was absent for a / few days in London, and the family dinner -- not a very lively one -- had / been just concluded. The servants -- two of them in plush and powder, with / their chief in all the dignity of a white tie and glittering studs -- had / left the room, and milady, looking as usual fat, fair, and comfortable / in her dark dress, a little _passée de mode_, ensconced her double chin / within the palm of her puffy white hand, and quietly awaited a response.

The girls from either side of the richly-furnished table glanced / furtively at each other, and Horace, who was feeling especially bright, / in consequence of having that day received the long-looked-for / notification that his examination would take place in the following / week, tapped his fingers lightly against the mahogany table, with an / assumed air of taking no interest in the question. He was seated in his / brother's place, a half smile -- a smile in which there was much latent / satire -- playing over his intelligent face. Probably Lady Millicent's / real or affected interest in her son's proceedings rather amused than / disturbed him.

"Can't anyone answer? " said Lady Millicent, who, like all great people, / had an objection to being kept waiting, and who was apt to be what is / vulgarly called "put out" by any apparent absence of obsequious respect. / "It doesn't give much trouble to say either ‘yes' or ‘no,' and Arthur is / so extremely mysterious that I am unfortunately obliged to address / myself to others for information."

"I think it depends a good deal on his coming of age," said Horace, who, / in spite of a certain vein of cynicism which occasionally gave / bitterness to his words, was sincerely attached to his brother, and ever / ready to give him a helping hand.

"I don't suppose that old Dub will make any objection to its being a / case of no settlements on _our_ side -- he's such an uncommon liberal old / fellow; but, as Atty says, -- and upon my word I think he's right, -- it is / awfully disgusting to owe everything to a woman."

"Your poor father was of a different opinion," said Lady Millicent / drily, and with her voice lowered to the properly pathetic tone in which / alone she allowed herself to speak of her dead husband. Horace turned / very red at this unexpected and, as he mentally called it, indelicate / remark. He was by nature an observant character, and young as he had / been at the time of his father's fatal accident, he had, without / entertaining any desire to spy into peccant places, into the _rifts_, / great or small, of his parents' inner life, already seen enough with / those keen eyes of his to convince him that only the outside surface of / things was smooth in his stately and prosperous home. The two lads had / during Cecil Vavasour's lifetime been accustomed to hear much obsequious / praise and prosternating flattery of their mother. For years they had / grown up in the faith of her prudence, her large-mindedness, her / liberality, and her cleverness; and it was not till long after they were / fatherless that either Horace or Arthur became entirely convinced that / Lady Millicent had shone with reflected lustre only, and that the good / gifts for which the world had given her credit were not _hers_, but / those of the husband who had borne his faculties through life with such / a meek and unobtrusive grace. How far Lady Millicent was at that time / aware of the fact that the eyes of not only her children but the world / were opened to her shortcomings we need not now inquire. Proud and / arrogant though she was, "milady" would have been very far from pleased / could she have learned the truth, and known what a "falling-off was / there," where but a few short years before all tongues, both male and / female, great and small, were wagging in her praise.

"Please, dear mother," Horace said, with the angry spot deepening on his / brow, "to remember that my poor father's name can never be brought / in -- in -- this way without giving pain to all of us. I always feel that / the opinions of one that is dead should be held even more sacred than / those of a person who is absent. The latter _may_ come back either to / uphold or to deny them, while -- "

"My dear Horace," interrupted Lady Millicent haughtily, "this will never / do; you will be thought -- pardon me for saying so -- a terrible bore in / society if you take to laying down the law in this prosy way. I little / thought when I asked you a simple question about your brother what I was / bringing upon myself."

Horace laughed good-humouredly. Like most young men, he hated a _scene_ / of any kind, and was very apt, for his sisters' sake as well as his own, / to turn off Lady Millicent's attacks with a joke.

"Thank you, ma'am, for the hint," he said good-humouredly. "It _was_ a / great mistake on my part dogmatising in such a ponderous fashion. As to / your question, my dear mother, I really believe that Arthur is waiting / to learn something of your wishes on the subject. As we all know, he / will be twenty-one next month."

"Yes, the parish register could have told you that," put in Lady / Millicent sarcastically; "but I confess to seeing no connection whatever / between your brother's age and his marriage."

She fixed her eyes firmly on her son as she spoke. They were large, / handsome, defiant eyes, the only good feature in her face -- good, that / is, if a feature can be called so which assists to give a hard and / unfeminine expression to its owner's countenance. Again Horace / endeavoured to pass the matter lightly and playfully off.