Spring Days | Page 9

that the county families took no notice of him. Mr. Brookes had sympathised, but the young people laughed at him and Willy had told a story how he had been to shoot at ----, and when a partridge got up right in front of his gun, Berkins turned round and shot it, exclaiming: "That's the way to bring them down!"
And now whenever his name was mentioned, Willy thought of this incident, so very typical did it seem to him of the man, and he liked to twit his father with it. But Mr. Brookes could not be brought to see the joke, and he fell back on the plausible and insidious argument that, notwithstanding his manners, Berkins was worth eight thousand a year.
"And very few girls get the chance of catching eight thousand a year; and she'll miss it, she'll miss it if she doesn't take care."
"You talk of it as if it were an absolute certainty; you don't know that Berkins wants to marry Grace; he hasn't been here for the last month."
"Mr. Berkins is not like the young good-for-nothings your sisters waste their time with, he is a man of means, of eight thousand a year; you don't expect him to come round here every evening to tea, and to play tennis, and to walk in the moonlight and talk nonsense. Berkins is a man of means, he is a man who can make a settlement."
"Has he spoken to you on the subject, then?"
"No, Mr. Berkins is a man of tact, however you may laugh at him for having shot your partridge. He spoke to your Aunt Mary, or rather she spoke to him. Ah, clever woman, your Aunt Mary, wonderful manner, wonderful will, when she wants a thing done it must be done. Your poor mother--I mean no disparagement--but I must say she couldn't compare with her for determination; Sally reminds me of her, but Sally's determination is misdirected, deplorably misdirected; it is directed against me, entirely against me. She must be made submissive; when I spoke to Aunt Mary about her, she said her spirit must be broken; and if she were here she'd break it. If she were here things would be very different, your sisters wouldn't be flirting with all the little clerks in the Southdown Road; but I am alone. I have no one to turn to."
"You were telling me that Berkins had spoken to Aunt Mary about Grace."
"Your Aunt Mary spoke to Berkins about Grace; she told him he ought to be thinking of marrying; that he wanted a wife. Then the conversation turned on my daughters, and Mary no doubt mentioned that at my death they would all have large fortunes."
"Ah, so it is the money that Berkins is after."
"Money comes first. If a man can make a settlement he will naturally demand a--that is to say he will naturally look forward, he will consider what her prospects are; not her immediate prospects, that would be mercenary, but her future prospects."
Willy smiled. "And what did Berkins say?"
"He said he wanted to marry, and he spoke of Grace; he said he admired her. I shouldn't be surprised if we saw him at church to-day."
"Are you going to ask him to lunch?"
"Certainly, if he's there." Then, after a long silence, Mr. Brookes said: "He'll come in here to smoke. Of course you'll leave us alone. Do you mind leaving out your cigars?"
"I have only half a box left; I think really you might keep some in the house to supply your own guests with. You always object if I interfere with your things."
"I am out of my best cigars--it is so hard to remember. He won't smoke more than one."
"I'll put one in the cigar case then."
"You had better fill it; it will look so bad if there is only one; he won't take it."
"He'll take all he can get; he took my bird, I know that!"
"This is a matter of great importance."
"To you and to Grace, not to me," said Willy, and with very bad grace he unlocked a drawer, and placed a box of cigars on the table.
"Thank you. Now what time is it? Half-past ten. By Jove! we must be thinking of starting; I suppose you aren't coming?"
"I am afraid I've too much to do this morning."
The young ladies appeared in new dresses, and with prayer-books in their hands. Mr. Brookes took his hat and umbrella, and Willy watched them depart with undisguised satisfaction. "Now I shall be able to get through some work," he said, untying a large bundle of letters. He wrote a page in his diary, tied up the letters, diary, and notebook in brown paper, and, with a sigh, admitting that he did not feel up to much work to-day, he took up the envelopes that