And Mark also was not unhappy, though he did not find it practicable
immediately to turn Dandy into money. Indeed, just at this moment,
when he was a good deal over at Barchester, going through those deep
mysteries and rigid ecclesiastical examinations which are necessary
before a clergyman can become one of a chapter, Dandy was rather a
thorn in his side. Those wretched bills were to come due early in
May, and before the end of April Sowerby wrote to him saying that he
was doing his utmost to provide for the evil day; but that if the
price of Dandy could be remitted to him _at once_, it would greatly
facilitate his object. Nothing could be more different than Mr.
Sowerby’s tone about money at different times. When he wanted to
raise the wind, everything was so important; haste and superhuman
efforts, and men running to and fro with blank acceptances in their
hands, could alone stave off the crack of doom; but at other times,
when retaliatory applications were made to him, he could prove with
the easiest voice and most jaunty manner that everything was quite
serene. Now, at this period, he was in that mood of superhuman
efforts, and he called loudly for the hundred and thirty pounds for
Dandy. After what had passed, Mark could not bring himself to say
that he would pay nothing till the bills were safe; and therefore
with the assistance of Mr. Forrest of the Bank, he did remit the
price of Dandy to his friend Sowerby in London.
And Lucy Robarts—we must now say a word of her. We have seen how, on
that occasion, when the world was at her feet, she had sent her noble
suitor away, not only dismissed, but so dismissed that he might be
taught never again to offer to her the sweet incense of his vows. She
had declared to him plainly that she did not love him and could not
love him, and had thus thrown away not only riches and honour and
high station, but more than that—much worse than that—she had flung
away from her the lover to whose love her warm heart clung. That her
love did cling to him, she knew even then, and owned more thoroughly
as soon as he was gone. So much her pride had done for her, and that
strong resolve that Lady Lufton should not scowl on her and tell her
that she had entrapped her son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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