A Duel Part 31

"But, you see, in this case there are other circ.u.mstances to be considered--there's me. I'm a factor in the question. And shall I tell you to what conclusion I'm drifting?"

"Let's have it."

"I should like to see Mrs. Lamb. You men know her, but I don't.

She hasn't even come within range of my vision, and though I've the highest respect for you, as men, when it comes to your opinion of a woman, I don't think a man's opinion worth anything."

"You're quite right--it isn't." This was Miss Johnson.

"I used to have a high opinion of you." This was Mr. Staines.

"You used to have!--that I should ever have been so belittled!"

Miss Johnson turned disdainfully from Mr. Staines to Margaret.

"What you say is perfectly correct, my dear, only a woman's opinion of a woman is of the slightest value."

"The other day I heard a woman express her opinion of you in terms which, if I repeated them to you, might cause you to change your views."

"Some women!"

"I don't know that I go quite so far as Dollie, and there is something in what Mr. Staines hints, for, of course, there are women whose opinions of each other are merely so many libels."

"Hear! hear!"

"Do be still! Will somebody sit on Mr. Staines?"

"But this appears to be a case in which a woman's opinion should be the only thing which ought to count--especially if I'm the woman; and, lest you accuse me of overweening conceit, let me hasten to explain. Mrs. Lamb is, I presume, a lady of beauty----"

"She's not bad-looking." This was Mr. Staines to, of course, Dolly.

"Much you know about a woman's looks!"

"I used to admire yours."

"Pooh!"

"Apparently of fortune, conceivably of taste. She is supposed to entertain certain sentiments towards a certain gentleman which she ought not to entertain. Actuated by those sentiments she proposes to play the part of a feminine Maecenas and pose as a patron of the drama. These are the allegations which are made against her. Introduce me to her; let me talk to her for half an hour, and I will engage to settle there and then--and finally!--the question as to whether she is a fit and proper person to produce 'The Gordian Knot' and play Lady Glover."

"I'm content!" cried Harry.

Mr. Winton was more deliberate.

"Well, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, I should be inclined to do more than hesitate before accepting a lady as arbitrator in such a matter, but I have such a high opinion of Miss Wallace, though she herself appraises a masculine estimate of such a subject at less than nothing----"

"I make an exception in your case, Mr. Winton--thank you very much."

"If she will allow me to say so, I esteem her wide-minded liberality so greatly, and set such value on her keen-sighted appreciation of character----"

"Dear! dear! Margaret, bow!"

"Dollie! don't interrupt!"

"That I am quite willing to go so far as this: If, after talking the matter over with Mrs. Lamb, fully and frankly, and weighing all the pros and cons, you tell me that you think it would be better, for all parties interested, that she should have nothing to do with the play, then, so far as I am concerned, the question will be settled--she shan't."

"The point is," struck in Dollie, "how is the poor dear child to become acquainted with this wonderful woman, who ought to be immensely flattered if she knows how much you have her in your thoughts?"

"There will be no difficulty about that. The lady has an 'At Home' to-morrow evening, to which, practically, all the world is welcome. I'll tell her, Meg, that you'd like to make her acquaintance, and ask her permission to bring you."

"You'll ask her?"

Mr. Staines looked at Mr. Talfourd with, in his glance, a satirical intention which the other ignored.

"Why not? Nothing could be simpler."

"No--nothing could be simpler--only I thought you said she didn't know you were engaged. Do you propose to tell her in what relation Miss Wallace stands to you?"

"Certainly! Why do you look at me like that?"

"I should like to see her face when she receives the communication, and, again, when she meets Miss Wallace. I know something of Mrs. Gregory Lamb. I fancy they may both of them be rather dramatic moments."

Margaret told him, laughing--

"Dear Mr. Staines, you may study the expression of her countenance when she meets me to your heart's content, if you choose. Suppose we all of us go together?"

Mr. Winton rose from his chair.

"Thank you; that is a proposal which I am afraid I must decline.

Mrs. Lamb might suspect us of conspiracy if we bore down on her in force. I will be in Connaught Square to-morrow evening, but perhaps a little late, when I think it possible, Miss Wallace, that one glance at your countenance will be sufficient to tell me exactly how the matter stands. Remember the arbitrament of my fate--as a manager, an issue of no slight consequence--is in your hands."

"Poor, innocent, ignorant Mrs. Lamb!" exclaimed Miss Johnson.

"Meg, if she only knew what issues of life and death you are bringing with you, I don't believe she'd let you into her house--however nicely Harry might ask her permission to bring you."

The young lady spoke much truer than she knew.

CHAPTER XX

THE IMPENDING SWORD

"I must have ten thousand pounds, and"--Mrs. J. Lamb paused--"within a week."

"Must!"

Mr. Isaac Luker folded his hands together with a gesture which suggested the act of prayer. He seemed singularly out of place in his environment. They were in the apartment which Mrs. Lamb called her boudoir, a word which has a different meaning in the mouths of different women. In this case it stood for a room which represented what was possibly the last word in gorgeous decoration. Everything was of the costliest. If the result was a trifle vivid, it was not altogether unpleasing. It was a room in which one could be very much at one's ease--in certain moods--if one were of a certain const.i.tution. There was something in its atmosphere which made a not ineffective appeal to the senses, not so much to the sense of beauty or of intellect, as to that of physical well-being. In some subtle way the owner's strong personality impregnated the whole place. On crossing the threshold a person of delicate perception might have become immediately conscious of something which could scarcely have been called healthy.

But the prevailing note was gorgeousness, and anything less gorgeous than Mr. Isaac Luker one could hardly conceive. Mrs.