A Crooked Path Part 45

"Indeed!" In a changed tone, "I hope she is all right?"

"It's hard to answer that. It seems one of the nephews has had a feverish cold, and she did not like to leave him. I do not feel sure there is not some real reason under this, for she adds that she is anxious to see and consult me about some matter she has much at heart.

Perhaps there is a man at the bottom of it."

"I hope not," said Bertie, quietly, "unless she has found some former friend at Castleford. I do not think Miss Liddell is the sort of girl to accept a man on five or six weeks' acquaintance, and she has scarcely been at Castleford so long."

"It is impossible to fathom the folly of women when a lover is in the case."

"You are hard, Hannah."

"I do not care whether I am or not. I don't want to lose Miss Liddell before the time agreed for."

"No doubt she is a profitable--"

"It is no question of profit," interrupted Miss Payne, grimly. "Whether she goes or whether she stays she is bound to me financially for twelve months. But I am interested in Katherine, and it will be far better for her to stay on here and feel her way before she launches into the whirl of what they call society. I want to save her for a while from the wild rush of dressing, driving, dining, dancing, that has swept away all my girls sooner or later. Look here: the mothers are flocking round her already." She began to take the cards out of the dish and read the names: "Lady Mary Vincent, 23 Waldegrave Crescent; she is a sister of that Lord Melford who ran such a rig years ago. _Her_ boys are still at Eton. I suppose she comes because her niece and Miss Liddell have struck up a friends.h.i.+p at Castleford. Then here are Mrs. and Miss Alford; we all knew them in Rome; there's a son _there_; they are respectable people, well off, and fighting their way up judiciously enough. Lady Barrington; _she_ has a nephew, but she will be useful. Mr. and Mrs.

Tracey; they were at Florence, and have a couple of daughters; there may be a nephew or a cousin, but I never heard of one; they are pleasant, sensible, artistic people, who just enjoy themselves and don't trouble.

Lady Mildred Reptan, Miss Brereton, John de Burgh; I don't know these.

All these people evidently think she is in town, or have only just come themselves, but you see the outlook."

"John de Burgh," repeated Bertie, thoughtfully. "I remember something about him; nothing particularly good. I believe he is on the turf. Yes, he is a famous steeple-chase rider, and rather fast--not too desirable a follower for Miss Liddell."

"She met him at Castleford, and I rather think he is related to Colonel Ormonde." Miss Payne put back the cards in the dish as she spoke, and remained silent for some instants.

"You will be glad when Miss Liddell returns," said Bertie.

"So will you," she returned, tartly. "But I hope you won't dip into her purse so freely as you used for your reformed drunkards and ragged orphans. It was _too_ bad."

"Miss Liddell never waits to be asked. She seems on the lookout for cases on which to bestow money. As she has plenty, why should I hesitate to accept it?"

Miss Payne slowly rubbed her nose with the handle of a small hook she used for pulling out the loops of her tatting. "Katherine Liddell is an uncommon sort of girl," she said, "but I like her. I have an idea that she likes me better than any of the others did, yet there are not many things on which we agree. She is a little flighty in some ways, but she has some sense too, some notion of the value of money; she does not lose her dead about dress, nor does she buy costly baubles at the jewellers'.

She, certainly wastes a good many pounds on books, when a three-guinea subscription to Mudie's would answer the purpose quite as well. Then she is honestly deeply grieved at the loss of her mother, but she does not parade it, or nurse it either, and I think she has some opinion of _my_ judgment. Still she is a little unsettled, and not quite happy."

"I think she deserves to be happy," observed Bertie, with an air of conviction--"if any erring mortal can deserve anything."

"We seldom get our deserts, either way, _here_; indeed, this world is so upside down I am inclined to believe there must be another to put it straight."

"We have fortunately better proof than that," returned her brother, gravely.

"I must say I feel very curious to know what Katherine's plan is; I am terrible afraid there is a man in it."

"Nothing more probable;" and Bertie fell into a fit of thought. "You know Mrs. Needham!" he asked suddenly.

"Well, I just know her."

"She is a most earnest, energetic woman, though we are not quite of one mind on all subjects. She wants to secure Miss Liddell's a.s.sistance in getting up a bazar for the Stray Children's Home. I shall bring her to call on you."

"Don't!"--very emphatically. "I know more than enough people already, and I don't want any well-dressed beggars added to the number."

"Well, I will not interfere; but that is of little consequence. If Mrs.

Needham wants to come, she'll come."

"I hate these fussy subscription-hunting women!" cried Miss Payne.

"She does _not_ hunt for subscriptions, nor does she take any special interest in religious matters, but she approves of this particular charity. She is an immensely busy woman, and writes in I don't know now many newspapers."

"Newspapers! And are our opinions made up for us by rambling hussies of _that_ description?"

Bertie burst out laughing. "If Mrs. Needham heard you!" he exclaimed.

"She considers herself 'the gla.s.s of fas.h.i.+on and the mould of form,' the most successful and important woman in the world--the English world."

Miss Payne's only reply was a contemptuous upward toss of the head. "If you will be at Euston Square on Sat.u.r.day to meet the five-fifty train from Monckton," she resumed, "I should be obliged to you--Miss Liddell travels alone--and you can dine with us if you like after, unless you are going to preach the gospel somewhere."

"Thank you. Why do you object to my preaching?"

"Because I like things done decently and in order. You are not ordained, and there are plenty of churches and chapels, G.o.d knows, for people to go to, if they would wash their faces and be decent. Now I can't stay here any longer, so good-by for the present." She took up a little basket containing an old pair of gloves, large scissors, and a ball of twine, and walked briskly away to attend to the plants in her diminutive conservatory.

De Burgh did not prolong his absence; he returned to Castleford while Katherine was still in attendance on the little invalid; but he found his stay neither pleasant nor profitable. Katherine was far too much occupied nursing her nephew to give any time or attention to her impatient admirer.

"Miss Liddell is a peculiar specimen of her s.e.x," he growled, in his usual candid and unaffected manner, as he and Colonel Ormonde sat alone over their wine. "She never leaves those brats. She must know that it's not every girl _I_ should take the trouble of teaching, and yet she throws over each appointment I make. Does she intend to adopt your wife's boys? Adopted sons are an appendage no man would like to accept with a bride, be she ever so well endowed."

"Oh, she will forget them as soon as she falls in love! You must carry on the siege more vigorously."

"How the deuce are you to do it when you never get within hail of the fortress? There is something peculiar about Katherine Liddell I can't quite make out. If she were a commonplace woman, angular, squinting, or generally plain, I could go in and win and collar the cash without hesitation, but somehow or other I can't go into the affair in this spirit. I want the woman as well as the money."

"Well, I see no reason why you shouldn't have both. Your faintness of heart never lost _you_ any fair lady, I am sure, Jack."

"Perhaps not." And he smoked meditatively for a minute or two.

"Then you will not leave us to-morrow?" said Ormonde.

"When does _she_ go up to town?" asked De Burgh.

"On Monday, I believe."

"Then I'll run up the day after to-morrow. Old De Burgh has just come back from the Riviera. I'll go and do the dutiful, and tell him I have found a suitable partner for my joys and sorrows; it will score to my credit. He doesn't half like me, you know. Then I'll have a dozen better chances to cultivate Miss Liddell in town, and away from your nursery, than I have here. Give me her address. She is a frank, unconventional creature, and won't mind coming out with me alone."

"Very true. Mrs. Ormonde has persuaded me to take her to town for a couple of months; so we'll be there to back you up."

"Good! Meanwhile I will do my best for my own hand. If she starts on Monday, I'll pay my respects to the peerless one by the time she has swallowed her luncheon on Tuesday," said De Burgh, with a harsh laugh.

Thus it came to pa.s.s that De Burgh's card was amongst those preserved for Katherine's inspection; but she postponed her departure first to Wednesday, next to Sat.u.r.day, and De Burgh grew savagely impatient when Colonel Ormonde informed him of these changes in a private note.

When at last she did arrive, Miss Payne was struck by the look of renewed hope and cheerfulness in her young friend's face. Her movements even were more alert, and her voice had lost its languid tone.

"I thought you would find it difficult to get away," said Miss Payne, as she a.s.sisted her to remove her travelling dress. "But I am very pleased to see you again, and to see you looking more like yourself."

"I _feel_ more like my old self," returned Katherine, actually kissing Miss Payne--a kind of treatment exceedingly new to her.

"In fact, I am full of a project which will, I hope, make me much happier. I will tell you all about it after dinner, if we are alone.