Jane had not come through a dozen seasons without receiving nearly a dozen proposals of marriage.An heiress, independent of parents and guardians, of good blood and lineage, a few proposals of a certain type were inevitable.Middle-aged men--becoming bald and grey; tired of racketing about town; with beautiful old country places and an unfortunate lack of the wherewithal to keep them up--proposed to the Honourable Jane Champion in a business-like way, and the Honourable Jane looked them up and down, and through and through, until they felt very cheap, and then quietly refused them, in an equally business-like way.
Two or three nice boys, whom she had pulled out of scrapes and set on their feet again after hopeless croppers, had thought, in a wave of maudlin gratitude, how good it would be for a fellow always to have her at hand to keep him straight and tell him what he ought to do, don't you know? and--er--well, yes--pay his debts, and be a sort of mother-who-doesn't scold kind of person to him; and had caught hold of her kind hand, and implored her to marry them.Jane had slapped them if they ventured to touch her, and recommended them not to be silly.
One solemn proposal she had had quite lately from the bachelor rector of a parish adjoining Overdene.He had often inflicted wearisome conversations upon her; and when he called, intending to put the momentous question, Jane, who was sitting at her writing-table in the Overdene drawing-room, did not see any occasion to move from it.If the rector became too prosy, she could surreptitiously finish a few notes.He sank into a deep arm-chair close to the writing-table, crossed his somewhat bandy legs one over the other, made the tips of his fingers meet with unctuous accuracy, and intoned the opening sentences of his proposition.Jane, sharpening pencils and sorting nibs, apparently only caught the drift of what he was saying, for when he had chanted the phrase, "Not alone from selfish motives, my dear Miss Champion; but for the good of my parish; for the welfare of my flock, for the advancement of the work of the church in our midst," Jane opened a despatch-box and drew out her cheque-book.
"I shall be delighted to subscribe, Mr.Bilberry," she said."Is it for a font, a pulpit, new hymn-books, or what?""My dear lady," said the rector tremulously, "you misunderstand me.
My desire is to lead you to the altar."
"Dear Mr.Bilberry," said Jane Champion, "that would be quite unnecessary.From any part of your church the fact that you need a new altar-cloth is absolutely patent to all comers.I will, with the greatest pleasure, give you a cheque for ten pounds towards it.Ihave attended your church rather often lately because I enjoy a long, quiet walk by myself through the woods.And now I am sure you would like to see my aunt before you go.She is in the aviary, feeding her foreign birds.If you go out by that window and pass along the terrace to your left, you will find the aviary and the duchess.I would suggest the advisability of not mentioning this conversation to my aunt.She does not approve of elaborate altar-cloths, and would scold us both, and insist on the money being spent in providing boots for the school children.No, please do not thank me.I am really glad of an opportunity of helping on your excellent work in this neighbourhood."Jane wondered once or twice whether the cheque would be cashed.She would have liked to receive it back by post, torn in half; with a few wrathful lines of manly indignation.But when it returned to her in due course from her bankers, it was indorsed P.BILBERRY, in a neat scholarly hand, without even a dash of indignation beneath it;and she threw it into the waste-paper basket, with rather a bitter smile.
These were Jane's experiences of offers of marriage.She had never been loved for her own sake; she had never felt herself really first in the heart and life of another.And now, when the adoring love of a man's whole being was tenderly, cautiously beginning to surround and envelop her, she did not recognise the reason of her happiness or of his devotion.She considered him the avowed lover of another woman, with whose youth and loveliness she would not have dreamed of competing; and she regarded this closeness of intimacy between herself and Garth as a development of a friendship more beautiful than she had hitherto considered possible.
Thus matters stood when Tuesday arrived and the Overdene party broke up.Jane went to town to spend a couple of days with the Brands.
Garth went straight to Shenstone, where he had been asked expressly to meet Miss Lister and her aunt, Mrs.Parker Bangs.Jane was due at Shenstone on Friday for the week-end.
