“What a splendid opportunity Mr. Cope will now have for proving the sincerity of his affection!” said Jane, with a little contemptuous curl of the lip.
“You are talking rank nonsense, Janet. Edward Cope loves you; there’s no doubt of that; but his father will never consent to his marrying a beggar, which is just about what you are at the present moment; and Edward has been too well brought up to go in opposition to his father. I confess it will be a great disappointment to me.”
“But none to me, papa dear!” cried Jane, impulsively, as she flung her arms round her father’s neck and kissed him—“no disappointment to me! Rather let us call it a happy release.”
“I don’t understand you,” said the old man, as he took her by the shoulders and gazed into her face. “I thought you loved Edward Cope as much as he loved you. You don’t mean to tell me that I have been mistaken.”
“There has been a mistake somewhere, papa,” faltered Jane, as she drew one of his arms round her neck, and nestled her head on his shoulder. “I—I almost fancy that it must have been on my side. I allowed myself to drift into an engagement with Mr. Cope almost without knowing what I was about. I liked Mr. Cope very well, and I thought that I could be happy as his wife, but I have found out my mistake since then. For me to marry Mr. Cope would be to condemn myself to a life of hopeless misery. I could never love him, papa, as a wife ought to love her husband.”
“Tut—tut—tut, girl! What romantic rubbish have you got into your head? Cope’s a nice young fellow, and when you were his wife you would soon learn to love him well enough, I warrant. All I’m afraid of is that he won’t have you for a wife—and all through my fault—all through my fault!”
Jane saw that the present was no time to say more on the point, and wisely held her tongue. For a little while the silence between them was unbroken.
“But I haven’t told you the worst yet, Jenny,” he said at last.
“Five thousand pounds of your Aunt Fanny’s money has been lost in the crash. She had entrusted me with the money to do the best I could for her, and that’s the result. She will be at Pincote in less than a week from now, and the first thing she will do, after she has taken off her bonnet and changed her boots, will be to ask me for her money. She will ask me for her money, and what am I to say to her?”
