Harum Scarum's Fortune

Toney Whitburn pulled in her thorough-bred suddenly by a gap in the park and looked at her companion. The two had met by chance and they had had a canter together, so that the exercise had made the girl look radiant, and her hair, though twisted round her well-shaped head, rebelled at the restriction, and in protest curled itself round her temples and the nape of her neck.
"Do you know—I'm twenty-one to-morrow. Isn't it terrible?"
"Terrible!" answered the young Squire, Lewis Waycott, with a smile half of amusement and half of sympathy.
"You don't think so, but I do! You know I've honestly tried to become 'a young lady with expectations.' I've been to a finishing school at Paris, and I've tried to learn German at Dresden, and I've gone to sleep through ever so many concerts, and I've seen all the old things at Rome—and yet——"
"You haven't succeeded? You are just the same as you were, thank Heaven!"
Toney's joyous laugh woke the echoes.
"No, I've failed utterly, though, honest Injun, I have tried! Aunt Dove says so! She's always implying what a national misfortune it is that to-morrow I shall be my own mistress, but now, will you—you have always been awfully chummy—will you be the judge?"
"Between you and Lady Dove?"
"Yes. You know I offered to be her companion—and I meant it——"
"You always mean what you say, Toney."
"I try to because Pups always did— Oh, if only he could just come to me now and say, 'Toney, you must'—no, he always said we must—do this and that with our money."
"I wish he could—but if you ask me, Toney, I should say give it all to Lady Dove, as she seems mighty jealous of your having it."
For a moment Toney looked at her companion with wide open and surprised eyes, then she answered gravely,
"Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, I do," he muttered.
"You are quite wrong. The dear old General would rise from his grave if I gave away his present. Oh, I couldn't; besides—I believe he wished Aunt Dove not to have it, so it would be betraying trust if—— No, I've got to keep it, but the thing is what I'm to do with it!"
"It's not many people who are puzzled what to do with money. I suppose—you'll——"
"What? I never knew you jib before."
"I was going to say you'll have lots of offers—and marry some Nabob——"
Toney laughed.
"How odd you should say that! Do you know, I wanted to ask your opinion about that very thing, because I can trust you. What does one say if people make you offers?"
The two had been waiting by the gate that led into the plantation. It was a lovely October day with the sunshine turning yellow leaves into gold and decay made glorious by its touches. Toney was so unconscious that her remark was at all comical, that her companion dared not laugh, nor did he even dare to look surprised.
"If you love the man, say 'yes,' and if you don't, say 'no.'"
"Thank you. I see it does seem easy and simple. Dear old Crumpet—by the way, this was the gap she went through on our first visit to you—do you remember? Well, when we went to Italy together——"
"Lady Dove did not approve!"
"Of course not, but she was wrong. No one could have done it better than Crumpet. She was just delighted over everything, and I had to hide my yawns often not to make her sorry; I couldn't stand more than one gallery a day, and one ruin thrown in, I really couldn't, but she loved it all. Do you know every now and then she used to burst out into a soft little laugh all to herself just because she was so happy, and I was so scrumptiously pleased to hear it, that I swallowed an extra gallery and did another old ruin without letting her see how sleepy it made me."
"But she was with you to do as you liked, I thought!"
"Oh, to see Crumpet laugh was what I really enjoyed! Do you remember what she used to be like, and now what with the Reverend, and Harry, and Toney, she is quite too happy, she says. But that isn't what I wanted to say, you'll see her to-morrow, and I've been here so little that it all brings back the past to-day. You understand?"
"Yes, I do; it seems ages since you were here, except on awfully short visits."
"Well, in Italy, there was a young man who made me an offer."
"What impudence!"
"Oh, no, and he didn't do it to me personally, because he told Crumpet I never gave him the tiniest chance, but he did it to her instead! Wasn't it funny, and she wept bitterly when she told me, she thought it was her fault."
"And what answer did you give him?" This time his companion smiled.
"I begged Crumpet to tell him Pups had said that he pitied any man who married me, as I was such a dasher—you know—and that Aunt Dove said no one would ever propose to me except he wanted my money!"
The man at her side bit his lip and impatiently flipped his horse with his whip, holding him in tightly at the same time.
"Lady Dove said that!"
"Yes, and of course it's true!