He liked them, but there was a limit to his endurance, and when Felix, elbowing Jessamy out of the conversation, sought enlightenment on tubular boilers, recoil-engines and screw-propellers, he laughed, and got up, saying: ‘My dear boy, if you want to know about steamboats, take a trip down the Thames – don’t ask me!’ He turned towards Frederica, but before he could take his leave of her the door opened, and two ladies entered the room. He looked round, and the words of farewell died on his lips.
Both ladies wore walking-dresses, but there the resemblance between them ended. One was a gaunt female, of uncertain age and forbidding aspect; the other was the most ravishing girl his lordship, for all his wide experience, had ever laid eyes on. He realised that he was looking at Miss Charis Merriville, and that his secretary had not overrated her beauty.
From her shining head of golden curls to her little arched feet, neatly shod in kid boots, she presented a picture to take any man’s breath away. Her figure was elegant; her ankles well-turned; her complexion had inspired several admirers to liken it to damask roses, or to ripe peaches; her tender mouth was exquisitely curved; her nose, escaping the aquiline, was straight, with delicately carved nostrils; and her eyes, which gazed innocently upon the world, were of a heavenly blue, and held an expression of candour, and the hint of a wistful smile. She wore a modest bonnet with a curtailed poke; and her dress was concealed by an azure blue kerseymere pelisse. The Marquis’s hand groped instinctively for his quizzing-glass; and Frederica, observing this with sisterly satisfaction, introduced him to her aunt.
Miss Seraphina Winsham, having had the introduction repeated to her in stentorian accents by her nephews, subjected his lordship to a hostile stare, and uttered, repulsively: ‘I daresay!’ She then added: ‘Oh, go away, do!’ but as this was apparently addressed to Lufra, who was frisking about her, his lordship stood his ground. The slight bow he made won no other response than a curt nod, and an even more repelling stare. Miss Winsham, informing Frederica darkly that it was just as she had expected, stalked out of the room.
‘Oh, dear!’ said Frederica. ‘She’s in one of her twitty moods! What has put her all on end, Charis? Oh, forgive me! – Lord Alverstoke – my sister!’
Charis smiled at his lordship, and gave him her hand. ‘How do you do? It was a very civil young man, Frederica, in Hookham’s library, who got a book down from the shelf for me, because I couldn’t quite reach it. He was most obliging, and even dusted it with his handkerchief before he gave it to me; but my aunt thought him a coxcomb. And they were unable to supply us with Ormond, so I brought away the Knight of St John instead, which I daresay we shall like quite as well.’
These words were spoken in a soft, placid voice; and the Marquis, under whose critical eyes the beauties of many seasons had passed, noted with approval that this one, the most stunning he had yet beheld, used no arts to attract, but, on the contrary, seemed to be unconscious of her charms. As one who had figured for years as the most brilliant catch on the Matrimonial Market, he was accustomed to meet with every artifice designed to ensnare him; and it was with approbation that he recognised the younger Miss Merriville’s unconcern. He asked her how she liked London; she replied that she liked it very well; but her attention was otherwhere, and she made no effort to pursue this opening, saying instead, in mildly reproachful accents: ‘Oh, Felix-love, you’ve torn a button from your coat!’
‘Oh, botheration!’ responded Felix, hunching an impatient shoulder. ‘It don’t signify!’
‘Oh, no, not a bit!’ she agreed. ‘Frederica made the tailor supply us with another set, don’t you recall? I’ll sew one on for you in a trice. Only come with me! you can’t go about the town looking like a shag-rag, now, can you?’
It was evident that the youngest Merriville saw no objection to presenting himself to the town in this guise; but equally evident was his acceptance of his elder sister’s authority, when he received, in answer to his glance of entreaty, a decided nod. He said sulkily: ‘Oh, very well!’ but, before suffering himself to be led away by Charis, took his leave of the Marquis, and said eagerly: ‘And you will take me to Soho, won’t you, sir?’
‘If I don’t, my secretary shall,’ replied Alverstoke.
‘Oh! Well – Well, thank you, sir! Only it would be better if you came with me yourself!’ urged Felix.
‘Better for whom?’ demanded his lordship involuntarily.
‘Me,’ replied Felix, with the utmost candour. ‘I daresay they would show you anything you wanted to see, on account of your being a – a second-best nobleman, which I know you are, because it says, in a book I found, that Marquises come directly after Dukes, so –’
But at this point his disgusted brother thrust him out of the room, pausing only, before following him, to offer Alverstoke a dignified apology for his childish want of conduct. As Lufra followed close on his heels, and Charis, bestowing a valedictory smile on Alverstoke, had already departed, the Marquis was left alone with his hostess.
She said thoughtfully: ‘As a matter of fact, I fancy it would be better if you took him to that place yourself. He is a very enterprising boy, you know, and there’s never any saying what he may take it into his head to do.’
‘Charles will know how to keep him in order,’ he replied indifferently.
She looked doubtful, but said no more. It was apparent to her that his lordship had fallen into a mood of abstraction. He was staring unseeingly at the opposite wall, an odd smile playing about the corners of his mouth. It grew, and he suddenly laughed, under his breath, saying: ‘By God, I’ll do it!’
‘Do what?’ demanded Frederica.
He had evidently forgotten her presence. Her voice brought his eyes round to her face, but instead of answering her he asked abruptly: ‘What are they doing here, those brothers of yours? They should be at school!’
‘Well, in some ways I think you may be right,’ she agreed. ‘Papa, however, never entertained the idea of sending any of his sons to school. He himself was educated at home, you know. That, of course, may not seem to you a very good reason for pursuing the same course with the boys – and, to own the truth, it doesn’t seem so to me either – but one ought not to be unjust, and it would be unjust to assume that poor Papa thought that his – his errors were due to his upbringing. And I don’t know that they were,’ she added reflectively. ‘The Merrivilles have always had a tendency towards volatility.’
‘Have they indeed?’ he returned, a satirical curl to his lips. ‘Is a tutor employed to instruct Jessamy and Felix, then?’
‘Oh, yes, scores of tutors!’ responded Miss Merriville. She perceived a startled look in his lordship’s eye, and hastened to reassure him. ‘Oh, not all at once! One after the other, you understand! You can’t think how vexatious! The thing is that if they are old the boys don’t like it, because they can’t enter into their sports; and if they are young they only want to stay for a month or two while they wait to take up a post in a school, or at one of the Universities, or some such thing. And, which is even more provoking, they always fall desperately in love with Charis!’
‘That I can readily believe.’
She nodded, but sighed also. ‘Yes, and the mischief is that she cannot bring herself to repulse them. She has a fatally tender heart, and can’t bear to give pain to anyone – particularly not to people like poor Mr Griff, who was very awkward, and shy, and had red hair, and an Adam’s apple which bobbed up and down in his throat. He was the last tutor. Just at present the boys are enjoying a holiday, but when they have seen all the sights in London, and have grown a little more accustomed, I must engage another tutor for them. But Jessamy is very good, and studies for two hours every day, because he is determined to go up to Oxford when he is eighteen, a year before Harry did.’
‘Is Harry at Oxford now?’
‘Yes, in his second year. Which is why it seemed to me to be just the moment to come to London for a year. It will do him a great deal of good to see something of the world before he is oblig
ed to settle down at Graynard, don’t you think? Besides, he will enjoy it excessively!’
‘I’ve no doubt he will,’ said Alverstoke. He looked down at her, a glint in his eyes. ‘Meanwhile, we have to consider your situation. I have the intention of giving a ball within the next few weeks, to mark the come-out of one of my nieces. You and your sister will appear at it, to be presented to the ton by my sister, and you will all of you doubtless receive invitations to attend a number of other such parties, to which my sister will escort you. Ah! and my cousin, Mrs Dauntry, who also has a daughter to bring out at my ball!’
Frederica’s lips quivered; mischief danced in her eyes; she said: ‘I am very much obliged to you! What a fortunate circumstance it was that Charis should have come home in time to make your acquaintance!’
‘Yes, wasn’t it?’ he retorted. ‘I might not otherwise have realised what a shocking thing it would be to keep such a diamond in the undistinguished shade!’
‘Exactly so! And nothing could be better than for her to appear at your ball. I am truly very grateful to you, but there is not the least necessity to invite me as well.’
‘Are you proposing to go into seclusion?’
‘No, but –’
‘Then there is every necessity for you to appear at my ball. I am strongly of the opinion, too, that your aunt should be prevailed upon to accompany you. Since you are not living under my sister’s roof, it would seem strangely particular if no respectable guardian were to be seen. Her eccentricity need not trouble you –’
‘It doesn’t!’ interjected Frederica.
‘– for eccentrics are all the rage,’ he continued.
‘Well, it wouldn’t trouble me if they were not. But I can’t help thinking that your sister may not agree to this scheme.’
The glint in his eyes became more pronounced. ‘She will!’ he said.
‘You can’t know that!’ Frederica argued.
‘Believe me, I do know it.’
‘No you don’t, for you’ve only this instant thought of it yourself,’ said Frederica bluntly. ‘It’s all very well to be so top-lofty, but unless your niece is also a diamond, as you phrase it, Charis will quite outshine her! What mother would consent to bring out her daughter in Charis’s company?’
A smile flickered on his mouth, but that was the only sign vouchsafed her that he was attending to her. He took a pinch of snuff, and said, as he shut his box: ‘I’ll accept the relationship between us – cousin! – but it’s not enough. You suggested that I should pose as your guardian: very well! let us say that your father commended you to my care. Now, why should he have done so?’
‘Well, he did say that you were the best of his family,’ offered Frederica.
‘That won’t fadge! My sisters, I’ll go bail, know as well as I do how remote is the connection between us! Some better reason must be found to satisfy their curiosity.’
Entering into the spirit of this, Frederica said: ‘Papa once did you a – a signal service, which you have never till now been able to repay!’
‘What service?’ asked his lordship sceptically.
‘That,’ returned Frederica, with aplomb, ‘is something you prefer not to divulge – particularly to your sisters!’
‘Oh, very good!’ he approved, the disquieting glint in his eyes yielding to genuine amusement. ‘I feel myself to be under an obligation to him, and for that reason have assumed the guardianship of his children.’ He caught the speculative gleam in her eyes, and his brows rose. ‘Well?’
‘I was merely thinking – cousin! – that if you mean to become our guardian it will be more proper for you to find a suitable tutor for Jessamy and for Felix than for me to do so!’
‘I know nothing about such matters – and my guardianship will be quite unofficial!’
‘You may depend upon that!’ said Frederica. ‘But I see no reason why you shouldn’t be useful!’
‘May I remind you that I have consented to introduce you to the ton? There my usefulness will stop!’
‘No, how can it? If you mean to set it about that you think yourself in honour bound to protect us, you must do something besides inviting Charis and me to a ball in your house! To be sure, I am very grateful to you for that – though you wouldn’t have done it if Charis hadn’t bowled you out! – but –’
‘Charis,’ he interrupted, ‘is a very beautiful girl – possibly the most beautiful girl I have yet encountered – but if you imagine that I shall invite her to the ball because I lost my heart to her you are wide of the mark, Cousin Frederica!’
‘I must say I hope you won’t do that,’ she replied, looking a little troubled. ‘You are much too old for her, you know!’
‘Very true!’ he retorted. ‘She being much too young for me!’
‘Of course she is!’ Frederica agreed. ‘So why did you decide suddenly to invite us?’
‘That, cousin, I do not propose to tell you.’
She considered him, a gathering frown on her brow, her unwavering gaze searching his face. She was puzzled by him. She had not, at the outset, been favourably impressed: his figure was good, his tailoring exquisite, and his countenance, though not handsome, distinguished; but she had thought that his manner held too much height, and that his eyes were cold, and unpleasantly cynical. Even his smile had seemed to be contemptuous, curling his lips, but leaving his eyes as hard as steel. Then she had said something that had appealed to his sense of humour, and the metallic gleam had vanished in a smile of real amusement. Not only did it warm his eyes, but it transformed him in a flash from the aristocrat of haughty composure to an easy-mannered gentleman, with a strong sense of the ridiculous, and considerable charm of manner. Within minutes he had pokered up again; yet there was not a grain of starch in him when Felix had bounced into the room; he had answered all his and Jessamy’s questions with patience and good-humour; and had looked upon both boys with kindness. He had borne the cavalier treatment meted out to him by Miss Winsham with indifference; and the gaze which he had fixed on Charis had been deeply appreciative. Frederica entertained no doubt that it was admiration for Charis that had caused him to change his mind, but what it was that had brought the malicious glint back into his eyes she could not guess.
She looked doubtfully at him. His brows rose; he said: ‘Well?’
‘I ought to have been a widow!’ she exclaimed in a vexed tone. ‘Yes, and if I had a particle of sense I would have been!’
The expression she mistrusted vanished; his eyes held only laughter. ‘You will be!’ he assured her.
‘That’s of no use!’ she answered impatiently. ‘If I were a widow now –’ She broke off, quick merriment in her face. ‘Well, of all the abominable things to say – ! I do have the family in charge – that’s because I’m the eldest – but I’m not tyrannical, or – or vixenish! At least, I don’t think I am!’
‘No, no!’ he said soothingly. ‘I am persuaded you handle the reins in excellent form. I wish you will tell me how, if you had had a particle of sense, you could have become a widow? Or why you should wish to: have you a husband concealed about you?’
‘Of course I haven’t! I meant only that I ought to have pretended I was a widow. Then I might have chaperoned Charis myself, and you need not have dragged your sister into it.’
‘Oh, I haven’t the least objection to doing that!’ he said.
‘Yes, but she may object very much! After all, she isn’t even acquainted with us!’
‘That shall be rectified.’ He held out his hand. ‘I must go now, but you shall hear from me within a day or two. Oh, pray don’t pull the bell! Recollect that I’ve become a member of the family, and don’t stand on points with me! I’ll usher myself out.’
This, however, he was not obliged to do, since Felix was lying in wait for him in the hall, and escorted him out to his carriage in a very civil manner which had its root in his determination to wring from him the promise of a visit to the foundry in Soho.
‘Have no fear!’ said his lord
ship. ‘The matter shall be attended to.’
‘Yes, sir – thank you! But you’ll go with me yourself, won’t you? Not your secretary?’
‘My dear boy, why should I? I daresay Mr Trevor knows far more about these mysteries than I do.’
‘Yes, but – Oh, do come yourself, sir! It would make it first-rate!’
The Marquis believed himself to be hardened against flattery. He thought that he had experienced every variety, but he discovered that he was mistaken: the blatantly worshipful look in the eyes of a twelve-year-old, anxiously raised to his, was new to him, and it pierced his defences. He was capable of giving the coolest of set-downs to any gushing female; and the advances of toadeaters he met with the most blistering of snubs; but even as he realised how intolerably bored he would be in Soho he found himself quite unable to snub his latest and most youthful admirer. It would be like kicking a confiding puppy.
So Master Felix Merriville, presently racing up the stairs again to the drawing-room, was able to inform Frederica triumphantly that all was right: ‘Cousin Alverstoke’ was going to take him to see the pneumatic lift himself, and, further, that he was a regular trump.
Five
Upon the following day Mr Charles Trevor sustained a shock. Not twenty minutes after the Marquis’s agent-in-chief had deposited on his desk a mass of reports and accounts which it was Mr Trevor’s unenviable duty to reduce to such proportions as would be tolerable to their noble employer, the Marquis strolled into his office, saying: ‘Good-morning, Charles. Do you know of any foundries in Soho?’