plead his cause
before Nora's mother and her elder sister. He had pleaded it well,
and Lady Rowley's heart had been well disposed towards him; but when
she asked of his house and his home, his answer had been hardly more
satisfactory than that of Alan-a-Dale. There was little that he
could call his own beyond "The blue vault of heaven." Had he saved
any money? No,--not a shilling;--that was to say,--as he himself
expressed it,--nothing that could be called money. He had a few
pounds by him, just to go on with. What was his income? Well--last
year he had made four hundred pounds, and this year he hoped to make
something more. He thought he could see his way plainly to five
hundred a year. Was it permanent; and if not, on what did it depend?
He believed it to be as permanent as most other professional incomes,
but was obliged to confess that, as regarded the source from whence
it was drawn at the present moment, it might be brought to an abrupt
end any day by a disagreement between himself and the editor of the
D. R. Did he think that this was a fixed income? He did think that if
he and the editor of the D. R. were to fall out, he could come across
other editors who would gladly employ him. Would he himself feel safe
in giving his own sister to a man with such an income? In answer to
this question, he started some rather bold doctrines on the subject
of matrimony in general, asserting that safety was not desirable,
that energy, patience, and mutual confidence would be increased by
the excitement of risk, and that in his opinion it behoved young men
and young women to come together and get themselves married, even
though there might be some not remote danger of distress before them.
He admitted that starvation would be disagreeable,--especially for
children, in the eyes of their parents,--but alleged that children
as a rule were not starved, and quoted the Scripture to prove that
honest laborious men were not to be seen begging their bread in
the streets. He was very eloquent, but his eloquence itself was
against him. Both Lady Rowley and Mrs. Trevelyan were afraid of such
advanced opinions; and, although everything was of course to be left,
nominally, to the decision of Sir Marmaduke, they both declared that
they could not recommend Sir Marmaduke to consent. Lady Rowley said
a word as to the expediency of taking Nora back with her to the
Mandarins, pointing out what appeared to her then to be the necessity
of taking Mrs.