The Lucases of Lucas Lodge Read online

  At the close of the interview, Sir William said that he could not think of giving his consent to Maria’s marrying Thomas Fairhead until he had spoken to Mr. Fairhead the elder. In the meantime, however, he promised that he should speak to Mr. Thripp, so that Maria need no longer be embarrassed by his attentions. Then he prepared—not without a heavy sigh at the prospect—to go abroad and begin the unpleasant task of spreading the news that there had been a misunderstanding with respect to the expected engagement.

  The conference between Sir William and Mr. Fairhead was a long one, but not unproductive. Mr. Fairhead, still despairing at the disaster which had befallen his son (although not unsympathetic to the motives which had prompted it), was all apologies, and both men were soon in agreement: first, that it was a ridiculous and foolish engagement; second, that Thomas ought never to have had the impertinence to ask for Miss Lucas’s hand at all; and third, that Maria certainly ought not to have accepted him. Furthermore, it was their respective duty as interested fathers to forbid it altogether. Having declared themselves of one accord on the matter, they then hemmed and hawed a while, and eyed one another sideways, and then Sir William ventured hesitantly that he did not like the thought of telling his daughter of their decision, for although he knew himself to be in the right, he was very fond of Maria and did not like to cause her unhappiness, for she did seem very much attached to Thomas Fairhead. Mr. Fairhead said in return that he was only sorry that the young people always seemed to want to have things their own way nowadays, and that it had not been like that in his day, but that he had observed that Thomas had been much happier since the engagement was mentioned—quite joyful, in fact—and had even been heard to make a number of quite sensible suggestions as to how he might support a wife in his present reduced state.

  Having made the mutual discovery that each of them was as fond and soft-hearted as the other, Sir William and Mr. Fairhead then proceeded to debate—merely as a matter of idle supposition—how a marriage might be effected, should both of them happen to take leave of their senses long enough to give their consent to it. The first question was where the two young people should live. Mr. Fairhead would not hear of his son’s joining the army, although he applauded the intention behind it. No; his place was at home with his family, for it was now more than ever necessary that they keep an eye on him, and prevent him from making any more unsuitable acquaintances. Here Mr. Fairhead mentioned a cottage in the grounds of Netherfield Park, to which Thomas had taken an unaccountable liking. It was small and quite derelict at present, but with repairs to its roof might be made tolerably comfortable at comparatively little expense, while more rooms might be added in future when money permitted. Sir William then said that Maria was a heedless girl in many respects, but that she possessed some little competence in the domestic arts, and with assistance from Lady Lucas might reasonably be trusted to learn to run a small household, such as the one Mr. Fairhead described, without mishap.

  So the discussion proceeded, and by the end of it the matter had, without either of them quite knowing how, changed from idle supposition to a definite arrangement. Maria Lucas and Thomas Fairhead would be married. To be sure, neither of the two men could bring himself to call it a very good thing—Mr. Fairhead would have preferred his son to marry a woman of fortune, but knew that Thomas had forfeited all right to anything of the sort, while Sir William would not own his regret that Thomas was not a clergyman with a good living and a comfortable parsonage—but when Sir William told Maria that he had given his consent to the marriage, and saw his daughter’s bright eyes and happy blushes, and felt her tears of joy on his hand as she wept over it, he began to think that perhaps he had not, after all, failed altogether in his duty as a father. There was much to do before the wedding could take place, however, and Sir William warned Maria that he could do very little for her, and that neither must she expect anything from the Fairheads. The first few years would be hard, but they were not the first young couple to embark upon married life with little money, and since they were neither of them burdened with extravagant tastes, there was no reason to suppose that they could not be just as happy poor as rich. Besides, Sir William had not forgotten that Mr. Fairhead had money to bequeath, and if Thomas could be induced to keep hold of it once he had it, Sir William hoped that one day he might be able to boast that his second daughter had made a better match than his first.

  So Maria Lucas married Thomas Fairhead, and sooner than anybody could have guessed, for thanks to the efforts of Mr. Fairhead the elder, who had given up any hopes of assistance from Mr. Sands and had decided to act for himself, it was ascertained that not all of the money had been lost, and with a little struggle—and the help of a friend of Mr. Fairhead’s, who had a certain influence—a larger sum than anyone had dared to hope for was recovered. So it was that Thomas and Maria found themselves with nearly two thousand pounds more than they had expected, and were able to settle into married life in their newly-repaired cottage, less than a twelvemonth after their engagement, in a certain degree of comfort, and there was not a person who saw them who did not remark on how well-suited they were, for they were both of a sort to find happiness in a simple life. Thomas never knew what a narrow escape he had had, for had he married Mary King he could never have enjoyed the peace and harmony that wedded life with Maria gave him. Meanwhile, Louisa Fairhead, having been sadly disappointed in Mary, now had to accustom herself to the idea that her brother was perfectly capable of choosing a wife for himself, and was forced to admit her fault in having originally overlooked Maria, whom she now discovered to be a very pleasant girl and much more worth knowing than she had ever before suspected. After a little struggle, she overcame her reserve and made an effort to get to know her new sister, and the two ladies quickly became very good friends—so much so that Louisa was soon able to rejoice in the happiness her brother had found, and ceased to regret the loss of Mary at all.

  As for Miss King herself, she judged it better to absent herself from Hertfordshire, at least for a little while, and so she returned to her uncle’s house in Liverpool, perhaps in the hope of securing one of the gentlemen she had spurned on her previous visit. Whether that were the case cannot be said; certain it is, however, that within three months after the wedding of Maria Lucas and Thomas Fairhead, the news began to circulate that Mary King had married a man some twenty years older than herself, who was reported to have an income of a thousand a year. It was less than what she had believed to be her deserts, but since all her efforts to shift for herself had failed, she judged it better to take what she could get while she still could.

  The news of Maria Lucas’s engagement to Thomas Fairhead came as a great surprise to the neighbourhood of Meryton, for everybody had been all but certain that she was going to marry Mr. Thripp. However, memories are mercifully short in such cases, and it was not long before it had ceased to be talked of with any great frequency; within a year or so, in fact, it had ceased to be talked of at all, and everyone was more concerned with congratulating the Fairheads on a happy arrival, and with agreeing among themselves that the family would soon outgrow their little cottage.

  Mr. Thripp, meanwhile, had been mortified by the unsuccessful outcome of his courtship of Maria Lucas, but since there was still one Lucas girl to be married off, and since he still had his eye on the possible future beneficence of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, he judged it better to say nothing and pretend that it had never happened, much to the relief of Sir William Lucas, who had only uncomfortable feelings about the part he had played in the misunderstanding. Still, Mr. Thripp had at least one cause for satisfaction, for during his frequent visits to Lucas Lodge in the autumn, he had made the acquaintance of the Lucases’ housekeeper, whom he had observed to be a very good, respectable sort of woman, and highly spoken of by her mistress. Thus it was that when his own dear Mrs. Partridge finally, and with great regret, informed him that she could no longer carry out her duties and would shortly retire to live with her son in Bedfordshire, Mr. T
hripp barely hesitated, and by the simple method of offering Mrs. Swale twice the wages she was accustomed to receive at Lucas Lodge, secured Mrs. Partridge’s replacement within a week of her retirement. Lady Lucas was most put out at this, but since she, too, was thinking of her youngest daughter’s marriage prospects, she was wise enough to overlook the offence, and to see her and Mr. Thripp talking together after church, nobody would have thought there was any bad feeling between them.

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