My dear Miss Chancellor, _j'en ai pris
mon parti_, and perhaps you know my way of doing that sort of thing. I
am not at all good at resigning myself, but I am excellent at taking up
a craze. I haven't renounced, I have only changed sides. For or against,
I must be a partisan. Don't you know that kind of nature? Henry has put
the affair into my hands, and you see I put it into yours. Do help me;
let us work together."
This was a long, explicit speech for Mrs. Burrage, who dealt, usually,
in the cursory and allusive; and she may very well have expected that
Miss Chancellor would recognise its importance. What Olive did, in fact,
was simply to inquire, by way of rejoinder: "Why did you ask us to come
on?"
If Mrs. Burrage hesitated now, it was only for twenty seconds. "Simply
because we are so interested in your work."
"That surprises me," said Olive thoughtfully.
"I daresay you don't believe it; but such a judgement is superficial. I
am sure we give proof in the offer we make," Mrs. Burrage remarked, with
a good deal of point. "There are plenty of girls--without any views at
all--who would be delighted to marry my son. He is very clever, and he
has a large fortune. Add to that that he's an angel!"
That was very true, and Olive felt all the more that the attitude of
these fortunate people, for whom the world was so well arranged just as
it was, was very curious. But as she sat there it came over her that the
human spirit has many variations, that the influence of the truth is
great, and that there are such things in life as happy surprises, quite
as well as disagreeable ones.
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