Within a week of Tom Bristow’s first visit to Pincote, and hisintroduction to the Copes, father and son, Mr. Cope, junior, found himself,much to his disgust, fairly on his way to New York. He would gladly haverebelled against the parental dictum in this matter, if he had dared to do so;but he knew of old how worse than useless it would be for him to offer theslightest opposition to his father’s wishes.
“You will go and say goodbye to Miss Culpepper as a matter ofcourse,” said Mr. Cope to him. “But don’t grow toosentimental over the parting. Do it in an easy, smiling way, as if you weremerely going out of town for a few days. Don’t make anypromises—don’t talk about the future—and, above all,don’t say a word about marriage. Of course, you will have to write to heroccasionally while you are away. Just a few lines, you know, to say how youare, and all that. No mawkish silly love-nonsense, but a sensible, manlyletter; and be wisely reticent as to the date of your return. Very sorry, butyou don’t know how much longer your business may detain you—youknow the sort of thing I mean.”
When the idea had first entered Mr. Cope’s mind that it would be anexcellent thing if he could only succeed in getting his son engaged to SquireCulpepper’s only child, it had not been without an ulterior eye to thefortune which that young lady would one day call her own that he had beeninduced to press forward the scheme to a successful issue. By marrying MissCulpepper, his son would be enabled to take up a position in county societysuch as he could never hope to attain either by his own merits, which were ofthe most moderate kind, or from his father’s money bags alone. But dearlyas Mr. Cope loved position, he loved money still better; and it was no part ofhis programme that his son should marry a pauper, even though that pauper couldtrace back her pedigree to the Conqueror. And yet, if the squire went onspeculating as madly as he was evidently doing now, it seemed only too probablethat pauperism, or something very much like it, would be the result, as far asMiss Culpepper was concerned. Instead of having a fortune of at