He can urge
an immediate marriage, which means an immediate settlement, and a direct
one.
MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY [seriously, quickly]. It will not be small, that
settlement?
[He shakes his head grimly, leaning back to look at her. She continues
eagerly.]
You have decide' what sum?
[He nods decidedly.]
What?
HAWCASTLE [sharply, with determination, yet quietly]. A hundred and
fifty thousand pounds!
MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY [excited and breathless]. My friend! Will she?
[Turns and stares toward ETHEL'S room, where the piano is still heard
softly playing.]
HAWCASTLE. Not for Almeric, but to be the future Countess of Hawcastle.
My sister-in-law hasn't been her chaperone for a year for nothing. And,
by Jove, she hasn't done it for nothing, either!
[He laughs grimly, moving back from the table.]
But she's deserved all I shall allow her.
MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY [coldly]. Why?
HAWCASTLE [rising]. It was she who found these people. Indeed, we might
say that both you and I owe her something also. [Comes around behind
table to MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY.] Even a less captious respectability than
Lady Creech's might have looked askance at the long friendship [kisses
her hand] which has existed between us. Yet she has always countenanced
us, though she must have guessed--a great many things.
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