CHAPTER XVIII

CHICANE

He came downstairs early, as he had done after a previous sleepless night—­also caused by Helen.

That it would be foolish, fatuous, and inexcusable to persevere further in his obstinacy against Helen, this he knew.  He saw clearly that all his arguments to her about money and the saving of money were ridiculous; they would not have carried conviction even to the most passive intelligence, and Helen’s intelligence was far from passive.  They were not even true in fact, for he had never intended to leave any money to Helen’s mother; he had never intended to leave any money to anybody, simply because he had not cared to think of his own decease; he had made no plans about the valuable fortune which, as Helen had too forcibly told him, he would not be able to bear away with him when he left Bursley for ever; this subject was not pleasant to him.  All his rambling sentences to Helen (which he had thought so clever when he uttered them) were merely an excuse for not parting with money—­money that was useless to him.

On the other hand, what Helen had said was both true and convincing; at any rate, it convinced him.

He was a miser; he admitted it.  Being a miser, he saw, was one way of enjoying yourself, but not the best way.  Again, if he really desired to enrich Helen, how much better to enrich her at once than at an uncertain date when he would be dead.  Dead people can’t be thanked.  Dead people can’t be kissed.  Dead people can’t have curious dainties offered to them for their supper.  He wished to keep Helen; but Helen would only stay on one condition.  That condition was a perfectly easy condition for him to fulfil.  After paying eight thousand pounds (or a bit less) for Wilbraham Hall, he would still have about ten times as much money as he could possibly require.  Of course, eight thousand pounds was a lot of coin.  But, then, you can’t measure women (especially when they are good cooks) in terms of coin.  For instance, it happened that he had exactly L8,000 in shares of the London and North Western Railway Company.  The share-certificates were in his safe; he could hold them in his hand; he could sell them and buy Wilbraham Hall with the proceeds.  That is to say, he could exchange them for Helen.  Now, it would be preposterous to argue that he would not derive more satisfaction from Helen than from those crackling share-certificates.

Wilbraham Hall, once he became its owner, would be a worry—­an awful worry.  Well, would it?  Would not Helen be entirely capable of looking after it, of superintending it in every way?  He knew that she would!  As for the upkeep of existence in Wilbraham Hall, had not Helen proved to him that its cost was insignificant when compared to his income?  She had.

And as to his own daily manner of living, could he not live precisely as he chose at Wilbraham Hall?  He could.  It was vast; but nothing would compel him to live in all of it at once.  He could choose a nice little room, and put a notice on the door that it was not to be disturbed.  And Helen could run the rest of the mansion as her caprice dictated.