Tuesday 4 December 2018

Tuesday, 10th July, 1838

There were extraordinarily distressing scenes at home tonight that have left me quite disturbed.

We were sitting eating what Widow Harvey assured us was Supper when Mary suddenly put down her knife and fork and spoke:

"Father, I must speak with you frankly."

Thinking she was about to comment on the food, I gestured for her to continue.

"Pappa, as you know, I have been taking watercolour lessons from Mr Milner Stephen  of late."

I nodded. I did not really approve of Mr Milner Stephen and I think I have made that quite clear within the family. En famille Milner Stephen is de trop.

Mary continued.

"Pappa, Mr Milner Stephen and I have been seeing rather a lot of each other and..... we have an understanding."

The food I was eating turned to ash in my mouth. Though considering how burnt it was to start with, this was probably not as dramatic as it sounds.

"An understanding?" I managed to choke out. And then Mary dealt the fatal blow.

"We intend to be married." 

I quietly place my cutlery upon the table and said, with all the dignity I could muster: "It would be my preference that Mr Milner Stephen did not become a member of this family."

Mary stood, struck a pose and, with all the melodrama of Mr Shepherd's drama, cried out, "But I love him father! You cannot keep us apart!"

Of course, there she was completely wrong. She was underage and consequently, without my permission, she was in the lurch.

I spoke again, calmly and reasonably. "Mr Milner Stephen is a mountebank, a charlatan and a fraud. His chief ability is to eat me out of house and home and he cheats at cards! I would not give him house room except that once he is through the door there is no getting rid of him! And his faith healing nonsense is the belief of a simpleton. Only the other day he offered to lay on his hands to help the vision in my bad eye!"

"You don't know!" Mary said. "He might have helped you!"

"It's a glass eye!" I said, which seemed to annoy her. "You will not marry him," I said.

"You forget, Father. I am over nineteen. In a year and a half I shall be twenty-one and there will be nothing you can do to stop me behaving exactly as I like!"

"I forbid this family from having further dealings with Mr Milner Stephen!"

Mary swept to the door, then turned dramatically. "Then you had best speak with Mamma and forbid her dealings with him as well!"

And with that she was gone. I turned to Mrs Hindmarsh. What, exactly, did Mary mean by "her dealings" with Milner Stephen?

"Oh now John.... " began Mrs Hindmarsh.

"Oh-now-John me no Oh-now-Johns Madam! To what is Mary referring when she speaks of your dealings with Milner Stephen?"

She sat quietly for a moment and then spoke. "Mr Milner Stephen is assisting and advising me with the arrangements for the selling of our land here in the Colony." I began to speak, but she held up a hand. "And before you say anything, remember what you have told me in the past. You have said that the man is as cunning as a rat and so I thought that he would be exactly the one to ensure that we received the greatest profits from our dealings. And besides: with the ridiculous state of the property laws it is useful to have a man about the place to sign the cheques and deal with the bank. Those are my dealings with Milner Stephen. Forbid them if you want to."

My first thought was "My ducats and my daughter!",  but after another moment I saw the justice of what she said. 

"Well then..... No harm done. All well and good," I said. "But what shall we do about Mary?"

Mrs Hindmarsh pulled a face.

"Oh, Mary!" She smiled. "There is not a problem in the world there. You know as well as I that she can not wait a half an hour for something without losing interest or being distracted by some shiny bauble."

This was true. 

"What chance is there then of the girl waiting eighteen months for her beloved Milner Stephen?"

Once again, I acknowledged the truth of this.

"Three months," I said. "Three months before some boy captures her heart."

"Three weeks!" said Mrs Hindmarsh.  

We said no more, but I am still troubled.

I have no doubt that Mary will lose interest in him. But I have seen George Milner Stephen's limpet-like abilities at clinging "to a good thing". Mary might lose interest in him. But will he lose interest in her?

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