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The atmosphere of the place, the companionship of Miss Mellerby, the reverence with which he himself was treated by the domestics, the signs of high nobility which surrounded him on all sides, had their effect upon him. Noblesse oblige. He felt that it was so. Then there crossed his brain visions of a future life which were injurious to the girl he loved.
Sophia Mellerby was a tall, graceful, well-formed girl, showing her high blood in every line of her face. On her mother's side she had come from the Ancrums, whose family, as everybody knows, is one of the oldest in England; and, as the Earl had said, the Mellerbys had been Mellerbys from the time of King John, and had been living on the same spot for at least four centuries.
But he thought it probable that in the event of delay poor Miss O'Hara might go to the wall; and he also thought that for the general interests of the Scroope family it would be better that she should do so. "And what are you going to do yourself?" asked Fred. "In respect of what?" "In respect of Miss Mellerby?"
Where should he find a girl like that in England with such colour, such eyes, such hair, such innocence, and then with so sweet a voice? As he hurried down the hill to the beach at Coolroone, where Morony was to meet him with the boat, he could not keep himself from comparisons between Kate O'Hara and Sophie Mellerby.
How would she, she, Lady Scroope, answer it to Lady Sophia, if Sophie should go back to Mellerby from her house, engaged to a younger brother who had nothing but a commission in the Engineers?
No one could make him marry Sophie Mellerby, or any other Sophie, and maintain a grand and gloomy house in Dorsetshire, spending his income, not in a manner congenial to him, but in keeping a large retinue of servants and taking what he called the "heavy line" of an English nobleman. The property must be his own, or at any rate the life use of it.
Jack Neville was much less likely to talk about his love affairs than Fred, but not on that account less likely to think about them. Sophie Mellerby had refused him once, but young ladies have been known to marry gentlemen after refusing them more than once.
Of course he must choose a bride for himself, only not a Roman Catholic wild Irish bride of whom nobody knew anything! As to that other matter concerning Jack and Sophie Mellerby, she could not bring herself to believe it.
Dandy was Miss Mellerby's own horse, and was accustomed to make journeys up and down between Mellerby and London. "I don't think horses and guns and dogs should be too much thought of," said Lady Scroope gravely. "There is a tendency I think at present to give them an undue importance. When our amusements become more serious to us than our business, we must be going astray."
He had come to Scroope for only three days, but, in spite of some watchfulness on the part of the Countess, he found his opportunity for speaking before he left the house. "Miss Mellerby," he said, "I don't know whether I ought to thank Fortune or to upbraid her for having again brought me face to face with you." "I hope the evil is not so oppressive as to make you very loud in your upbraidings."
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