The Way We Live Now

Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house in Welbeck Street. Lady Carbury spent many hours at her desk, and wrote many letters⁠—wrote also very much beside letters. She spoke of herself in these days as a woman devoted to Literature, always spelling the word with a big L. Something of the nature of her devotion may be learned by the perusal of three letters which on this morning she had written with a quickly running hand. Lady Carbury was rapid in everything, and in nothing more rapid than in the writing of letters. Here is Letter No. 1;⁠—

Thursday, Welbeck Street.

Dear Friend⁠—

“My dear boy,” she said, “pray leave your tobacco below when you come in here.”

“What affectation it is, mother,” he said, throwing, however, the half-smoked cigar into the fireplace. “Some women swear they like smoke, others say they hate it like the devil. It depends altogether on whether they wish to flatter or snub a fellow.”

“You don’t suppose that I wish to snub you?”

“Upon my word I don’t know. I wonder whether you can let me have twenty pounds?”

“My dear Felix!”

“Just so, mother;⁠—but how about the twenty pounds?”

“What is it for, Felix?”

“Well;⁠—to tell the truth, to carry on the game for the nonce till something is settled. A fellow can’t live without some money in his pocket. I do with as little as most fellows. I pay for nothing that I can help. I even get my hair cut on credit, and as long as it was possible I had a brougham, to save cabs.”

“What is to be the end of it, Felix?”

“I never could see the end of anything, mother. I never could nurse a horse when the hounds were going well in order to be in at the finish. I never could pass a dish that I liked in favour of those that were to follow. What’s the use?” The young man did not say “carpe diem,” but that was the philosophy which he intended to preach.

He found his special friend, Dolly Longestaffe, standing on the steps with a cigar in his mouth, and gazing vacantly at the dull brick house opposite. “Going to dine here, Dolly?” said Sir Felix.

“I suppose I shall, because it’s such a lot of trouble to go anywhere else. I’m engaged somewhere, I know; but I’m not up to getting home and dressing. By George! I don’t know how fellows do that kind of thing. I can’t.”

“Going to hunt tomorrow?”

“Well, yes; but I don’t suppose I shall. I was going to hunt every day last week, but my fellow never would get me up in time. I can’t tell why it is that things are done in such a beastly way. Why shouldn’t fellows begin to hunt at two or three, so that a fellow needn’t get up in the middle of the night?”

“Because one can’t ride by moonlight, Dolly.”

“It isn’t moonlight at three. At any rate I can’t get myself to Euston Square by nine. I don’t think that fellow of mine likes getting up himself. He says he comes in and wakes me, but I never remember it.”

“How many horses have you got at Leighton, Dolly?”

“How many? There were five, but I think that fellow down there sold one; but then I think he bought another. I know he did something.”

If she might be allowed to be wooed by Sir Felix Carbury, and to give herself to him, she thought that she would be contented.

“How well you dance,” said Sir Felix, as soon as he had breath for speaking.

“Do I?” She spoke with a slightly foreign accent, which gave a little prettiness to her speech. “I was never told so. But nobody ever told me anything about myself.”

“I should like to tell you everything about yourself, from the beginning to the end.”

“Ah⁠—but you don’t know.”

“I would find out. I think I could make some good guesses. I’ll tell you what you would like best in all the world.”

“What is that?”

“Somebody that liked you best in all the world.”

“Ah⁠—yes; if one knew who?”

“How can you know, Miss Melmotte, but by believing?”

“That is not the way to know. If a girl told me that she liked me better than any other girl, I should not know it, just because she said so. I should have to find it out.”

“And if a gentleman told you so?”

“I shouldn’t believe him a bit, and I should not care to find out. But I should like to have some girl for a friend whom I could love, oh, ten times better than myself.”

“So should I.”

“Have you no particular friend?”

“I mean a girl whom I could love⁠—oh, ten times better than myself.”

“Now you are laughing at me, Sir Felix,” said Miss Melmotte.

“Women never do. Well;⁠—what can I do for you, now that you are here?”

“Mr. Melmotte, I’m come⁠—I’m come to;⁠—in short, Mr. Melmotte, I want to propose myself as a suitor for your daughter’s hand.”

“The d⁠⸺ you do!”

“Well, yes; and we hope you’ll give us your consent.”

“She knows you’re coming then?”

“Yes;⁠—she knows.”

“And my wife;⁠—does she know?”

“I’ve never spoken to her about it. Perhaps Miss Melmotte has.”

“And how long have you and she understood each other?”

“I’ve been attached to her ever since I saw her,” said Sir Felix. “I have indeed. I’ve spoken to her sometimes. You know how that kind of thing goes on.”

“I’m blessed if I do. I know how it ought to go on. I know that when large sums of money are supposed to be concerned, the young man should speak to the father before he speaks to the girl. He’s a fool if he don’t, if he wants to get the father’s money. So she has given you a promise?”

“I don’t know about a promise.”

“Do you consider that she’s engaged to you?”

“Not if she’s disposed to get out of it,” said Sir Felix, hoping that he might thus ingratiate himself with the father. “Of course, I should be awfully disappointed.”

“She has consented to your coming to me?”