A Double Knot Part 53

"Don't say that," cried Litton.

"Don't be a donkey, Arthur, _mon cher_," said the lady. "Well, to proceed: I should have married you because you were young and handsome."

"Your ladys.h.i.+p seemed to indicate just now that I was not handsome,"

said Litton.

"Did I? Well, I retract. I do think you handsome, Arturo, and I should have been horribly jealous of you as soon as I found that you were paying your court elsewhere."

"Does your ladys.h.i.+p still imagine that I could be such a scoundrel?"

cried Litton, in indignant tones.

The square golden eyegla.s.s went up again.

"Excellent, Arturo, my dear boy! You would have made a fortune upon the stage in tragi-comedy. Nothing could have been finer than that declaration. Really, I am proud of you! But I should have led you a horrible life, and been ready to poison you if I found you out in deception."

"Lady Littletown, I hope I am a gentleman," said the visitor haughtily.

"I hope you are, I'm sure, my dear boy," said her ladys.h.i.+p, smiling at him serenely. "But, as you see, I could not have put up with my money being lavished upon others; and hence I thought it better to let someone else have you."

"But, my dear Lady Littletown--"

"Ah, tut, tut, tut! no rhapsodies, please, my sweet ingenuous Lubin. I am no Phyllis now, believe me, and all this is waste of words. There, be patient, my dear boy, and you shall have a rich wife, and she shall be as young as I can manage; but, mind, I do not promise beauty. Do you hear? Are the raptures at an end?"

"Oh yes, if you like," he said bitterly.

"I do like, my dear boy; so they are at an end. Really, Arturo, I feel quite motherly towards you, and, believe me, I shall not rest until I see you well mated."

"Thanks, my dear Lady Littletown," he said; "and with that, I suppose, I am to be contented."

"Yes, sir; and you ought to be very thankful, Do you hear?"

"Yes," he replied, taking and kissing one of her ladys.h.i.+p's gardening gloves. "And now I must be for saying _au revoir_."

"_Au revoir, cher garcon_!" replied her ladys.h.i.+p; and she followed her visitor out of the conservatory into the drawing-room, and rang the bell for the servant in attendance to show him out.

"It wouldn't have been a bad slice of luck to have married her and had this place. But, good heavens, what an old hag!"

"I should have been an idiot to marry him," said her ladys.h.i.+p, as soon as she was alone. "He is very handsome and gentlemanly and nice; but he would have ruined me, I am sure of that. Ah well, the sooner I find him someone else with a good income the better. Let him squander that.

Why--"

She stopped short.

"How stupid of me! The very thing! Lady Anna Maria Morton has just come in for her brother's estate."

Lady Littletown stood thinking.

"She is fifty if she is a day, perhaps fifty-five, and as tremulous as Isabella Dymc.o.x. But what of that? Dear Anna Maria! I have not called upon her for a fortnight. How wrong! I shall be obliged to have a little _partie carree_ to dinner. Let me see--Lady Anna Maria, Arthur, myself, and--dear, dear--dear, dear me! Who shall I have that is not stupid enough to spoil sport?"

She walked about in a fidgety manner, and then picked up her card-basket, raised the square gold eyegla.s.s, and turned the cards over in an impatient manner.

"Not one--not one!" she cried reluctantly. "Never mind; she shall come to a _tete-a-tete_ dinner, and Arthur shall drop in by accident, and stop. Dear boy, how I do toil and slave on his behalf! But stay," she added, after a pause; "shall I wait and get the Dymc.o.x business over first? No; what matters? I am diplomat enough to carry on both at once; and, by-the-bye, I must not let that little military boy slip through my fingers, for he really is a prize. Taken with Marie; but that won't do," she continued. "Moorpark must have her, and I dare say somebody will turn up."

She took her seat at the table then, and began to write a tiny note upon delicately-scented paper. The first words after the date were: "My dearest Anna Maria," and she ended with: "Your very affectionate friend."

Volume 2, Chapter XII.

A MATTER-OF-FACT MATCH.

d.i.c.k Millet received a note in his uncle's crabbed hand one morning at Hampton Court, obtained leave, and hurried up to town, calling at Grosvenor Square to hear the last news about Gertrude, but finding none.

On arriving at Wimpole Street, Vidler opened the door to the visitor, and smiled as he did so in rather a peculiar way.

"Can I speak to my uncle?" said d.i.c.k importantly. And he was shown up into the drawing-room, which seemed more gloomy now, lit as it was by four wax-candles, which were lost, as it were, in a great mist of old-time air, that had been shut up in that room till it had grown into a faded and yellow atmosphere carefully preserved from the bleaching properties of the sun.

The little opening was to his right, with the white hand visible on the ledge; but d.i.c.k hardly saw it, for, as he entered, Gertrude ran to his arms, to fall sobbing on his neck, while John Huish came forward offering his hand.

"Then it was you, John Huish, after all?" d.i.c.k exclaimed angrily, as he placed his own hand behind his back.

"Yes, it was I. What else could I do, forbidden as I was to come to the house? Come, my dear d.i.c.k, don't be hard upon me now."

"But," exclaimed d.i.c.k in a puzzled way, "how was all this managed?"

"Shall we let that rest?" said Huish, smiling. "Neither Gertrude nor I are very proud of our subterfuges. But come, we are brothers now. We can count upon you, can we not, to make friends with her ladys.h.i.+p."

"I--don't know," said d.i.c.k quietly, for his mind was busy with the thoughts of the awkward reports he had heard concerning Huish and his position at various clubs, and he asked himself whether he should be the friend and advocate of a man who was declared to be little better than a blackleg.

"Surely I can count upon you," said Huish, after a pause.

"Suppose we step down into the dining-room," said d.i.c.k stiffly; but he gave his sister an encouraging smile as she caught his hand.

"d.i.c.k," she whispered, "what does this mean?"

"Only a little clearing up between John Huish and me, dear," he said.

"After that, I dare say I shall be able to tell you I'm glad you're his wife."

Gertrude smiled, and Huish followed down to the dining-room, which, lit by one candle, looked like a vault. Arrived here, though, d.i.c.k turned sharply upon his brother-in-law.

"Now, look here, John Huish," he said, "I won't quarrel about the past and this clandestine match, for perhaps, if I had been situated as you were, I should have done the same; but there is something I want cleared up."

"Let us clear it up at once then," said Huish, smiling. "What is it?"

"Well, there are some sinister reports about you--you see, I speak plainly."

"Yes, of course. Go on."

"Well, they say commonly that you have been playing out of the square at the clubs; that you've been expelled from two, and that your conduct has been little better than that of a blackleg. John Huish, as a gentleman and my brother-in-law, how much of this is true? Stop a moment," he added hastily. "I know, old man, what it is myself to be pinched for money, and how a fellow might be tempted to do anything shady to get some together to keep up appearances. If there has been anything queer it must be forgiven; but you must give me your word as a man that for the future all shall be right."

"My dear d.i.c.k," cried Huish, "I give you my word that all in the future shall be square, as you term it; and I tell you this, that if any man had spoken such falsehoods about my wife's brother, I should have knocked him down. There isn't a word of truth in these reports, though I must confess they have worried me a great deal. Now, will you shake hands?"