A Difficult Young Man (26 page)
It may be that at the last minute she hesitated, but with that ruthless combination of passion and logic he conducted a violent assault on her heart and mind. Perhaps he lifted her hand to his face, and she touched the scar by his mouth, and she thought:
âTwice he has flung himself down for me, now when he has climbed up I should go with him.' Whatever she thought, she surrendered. How they got away is a miracle, and yet she found time to scrawl a note to Maysie, though she may have written it as soon as the bridesmaids left. It was this that Uncle Bertie found, when fuming with impatience, he broke open the door:
âDarling Mummy, please forgive me. I've gone with Dominic. It can't be helped. I'm so sorry about all the trouble. Your loving Helena.
âPlease give my apologies to Wentworth.'
The postscript shows the extent of her regard for that unfortunate millionaire. She did not imagine that she had caused him much more than inconvenience, as if she had missed an appointment to lunch with him in Melbourne. His attitude to the wedding did not seem very different, judging from the manner in which he looked at his watch in the church.
Dominic and Helena drove in the hansom to Spencers Street railway station, where they caught the express to Sydney, and they were married as soon as possible. Steven allowed Dominic the amount which he had intended to give him if he married Sylvia, while Aunt Maysie, obstinately opposing Uncle Bertie, who for months declared that he would never again speak to his daughter, gave Helena half the income that she had inherited from Alice. In this way they were able to live in material comfort.
Many of the upholstered ladies spoke of them with malice, not only because of Helena's appalling disrespect to wealth, but also because they thought she must be unduly happy. The more good-natured, when Aunt Maysie returned the wedding presents, said:
âOh, no. Let her keep them. After all she is married.'
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