Much Dithering by Dorothy Lambert

Author:Dorothy Lambert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2020-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On New Year’s Day Miss Mellicent spent the afternoon at the Priory and took the opportunity of discussing Jocelyn’s future with the Honourable Augusta, a delicate matter, because that lady had a marked aversion from discussing the future years when she herself would no longer be there to hold the reins of government. So long as she lived she considered that Jocelyn’s life needed no rearrangement. She was the widow of her son, and her home was the Dower House, and she was comfortably off, and lived in the village where she had always lived, and doubtless always would live, and continue the daily round and the common tasks which furnished (so far as one had ever thought about it) all she asked of life. Still, perhaps Mellicent was right. Perhaps it was wiser to ensure that Jocelyn, whose knowledge of the world was practically nil and whose capacity for looking after herself was untested by experience or opportunity, should be left in the care of someone who could be trusted to go on shielding her and cherishing her in as far as possible the state of life in which she had always lived.

“Perhaps you are right,” agreed the Honourable Augusta thoughtfully. “As you point out—rather morbidly, I must say—I see no reason for such gloomy forebodings just because it happens to be New Year’s Day, and I dislike good resolutions, Mellicent; they lead nowhere—but still, since you have pointed out the danger of Jocelyn having to face an uncared-for future—derelict and shipwrecked, I think you called it, though I see no reason for such terrifying prognostications—well, go on, Mellicent, tell me about this person to whose care you wish to consign Jocelyn’s future. You tell me that he is attracted. But what about Jocelyn? Has he made any definite advances to make her think so?”

“Oh, no—oh, dear, no!” replied Miss Pallfrey hastily. “Not at all, Augusta. Mrs. Pomfret says she is sure he is falling in love—greatly attracted, at all events, by our dear Jocelyn—and has pointed out the inestimable advantages of such a possibility; and naturally, Augusta, at our age—we are no longer young and no one knows what the years may bring—”

“Keep to the point, Mellicent, and let the years go by. Who is this man, and is he the right sort of person to be Jocelyn’s husband? Has he Family, Position? Why is he here in Much Dithering? Of course I remember approving his lease when my agent consulted me; but a man may be a suitable tenant without being a suitable husband for my daughter-in-law.”

“I feel sure he is the right man, and that we can put the future of our dear Jocelyn in his hands without any doubts and fears,” returned Miss Pallfrey earnestly. “He is worthy, in every meaning of the word. He also is bereaved and knows what it is to be severed from one’s dear one. Indeed Jocelyn could find no more blessed task than to devote the rest of her life to being his comfort and stay in his old age.

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