CHAPTER V.
_Ruined Hopes_
IT RAINED all night without ceasing yet the morrow was serene.Nevertheless the odds had shifted. On the evening, thy had not been morethan two to one against the first favourite, the Duke of St. James's ch.c. Sanspareil, by Ne Plus Ultra; while they were five to one against thesecond favourite, Mr. Dash's gr. c. The Dandy, by Banker, and nine andten to one against the next in favour. This morning, however, affairswere altered. Mr. Dash and his Dandy were at the head of the poll; andas the owner rode his own horse, being a jockey and a fit rival for theDuke of St. James, his backers were sanguine. Sanspareil, was, however,the second favourite.
The Duke, however, was confident as an universal conqueror, and came onin his usual state, rode round the course, inspirited Lady Aphrodite,who was all anxiety, betted with Miss Dacre, and bowed to Mrs.Dallington.
There were more than ninety horses, and yet the start was fair. But theresult? Pardon me! The fatal remembrance overpowers my pen. An effortand some _Eau de Portingale_, and I shall recover. The first favouritewas never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after thedistance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a _dark_horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. Jameshad never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand insweeping triumph. The spectators were almost too surprised to cheer; butwhen the name of the winner was detected there was a deafening shout,particularly from the Yorkshiremen. The victor was the Earl of St.Jerome's b. f. May Dacre, by Howard.
Conceive the confusion! Sanspareil was at last discovered, andimmediately shipped off for Newmarket, as young gentlemen who get intoscrapes are sent to travel. The Dukes of Burlington and Shropshireexchanged a few hundreds; the Duchess and Charles Annesley a few gloves.The consummate Lord Bloomerly, though a backer of the favourite, incompliment to his host, contrived to receive from all parties, andparticularly from St. Maurice. The sweet little Wrekins were absolutelyruined. Sir Lucius looked blue, but he had hedged; and Lord Squib lookedyellow, but some doubted. Lord Hounslow was done, and Lord Bagshot wasdiddled.
The Duke of St. James was perhaps the heaviest sufferer on the field,and certainly bore his losses the best. Had he seen the five-and-twentythousand he was minus counted before him, he probably would have beenstaggered; but as it was, another crumb of his half-million was gone.The loss existed only in idea. It was really too trifling to thinkof, and he galloped up to Miss Dacre, and was among the warmest of hercongratulators.
'I would offer your Grace my sympathy for your congratulations,' saidMiss Dacre, in a rather amiable tone; 'but' (and here she resumed herair of mockery) 'you are too great a man to be affected by so light acasualty. And, now that I recollect myself, did you run a horse?'
'Why, no; the fault was, I believe, that he would not run; butSanspareil is as great a hero as ever. He has only been conquered by theelements.'
The dinner at the Duke of St. James's was this day more splendid eventhan the preceding. He was determined to show that the disappointmenthad produced no effect upon the temper of so imperial a personageas himself, and he invited several of the leading gentry to join hiscoterie. The Dacres were among the solicited; but they were, during theraces, the guests of Mrs. Dallington Vere, whose seat was only a mileoff, and therefore were unobtainable.
Blazed the plate, sparkled the wine, and the aromatic venison sent forthits odourous incense to the skies. The favourite cook had done wonders,though a Sanspareil pate, on which he had been meditating for a week,was obliged to be suppressed, and was sent up as a tourte a la Bourbon,in compliment to his Royal Highness. It was a delightful party: all thestiffness of metropolitan society disappeared. All talked, and laughed,and ate, and drank; and the Protocolis and the French princes, who weremost active members of a banquet, ceased sometimes, from want of breath,to moralize on the English character. The little Wrekins, with theirwell-acted lamentations over their losses, were capital; and Sophynearly smiled and chattered her head this day into the reversion of thecoronet of Fitz-pompey. May she succeed! For a wilder little partridgenever yet flew. Caroline St. Maurice alone was sad, and would not becomforted; although St. James, observing her gloom, and guessing at itscause, had in private assured her that, far from losing, on the whole hewas perhaps even a winner.
None, however, talked more agreeable nonsense and made a more elegantuproar than the Duke of St. James.
'These young men,' whispered Lord Squib to Annesley, 'do not know thevalue of money. We must teach it them. I know too well; I find it verydear.'
If the old physicians are correct in considering from twenty-five tothirty-five as the period of lusty youth, Lord Squib was still a lustyyouth, though a very corpulent one indeed. The carnival of his life,however, was nearly over, and probably the termination of the race-weekmight hail him a man. He was the best fellow in the world; short andsleek, half bald, and looked fifty; with a waist, however, which had notyet vanished, and where Art successfully controlled rebellious Nature,like the Austrians the Lombards. If he were not exactly a wit, he wasstill, however, full of unaffected fun, and threw out the results of a_roue_ life with considerable ease and point. He had inherited a fairand peer-like property, which he had contrived to embarrass in socomplicated and extraordinary a manner that he had been a ruined man foryears, and yet lived well on an income allowed him by his creditors tomanage his estate for their benefit. The joke was, he really managedit well. It was his hobby, and he prided himself especially upon hischaracter as a man of business.
The banquet is certainly the best preparative for the ball, if itsblessings be not abused, for then you get heavy. Your true votary ofTerpsichore, and of him we only speak, requires, particularly in a landof easterly winds, which cut into his cab-head at every turn of everystreet, some previous process to make his blood set him an example indancing. It is strong Burgundy and his sparkling sister champagne thatmake a race-ball always so amusing a _divertissement_. One enters theroom with a gay elation which defies rule without violating etiquette,and in these county meetings there is a variety of character, andclasses, and manners, which is interesting, and affords an agreeablecontrast to those more brilliant and refined assemblies the members ofwhich, being educated by exactly the same system and with exactly thesame ideas, think, look, move, talk, dress, and even eat, alike; theonly remarkable personage being a woman somewhat more beautiful thanthe beauties who surround her, and a man rather more original in hisaffectations than the puppies that surround him. The proof of thegeneral dulness of polite circles is the great sensation that is alwaysproduced by a new face. The season always commences briskly, becausethere are so many. Ball, and dinner, and concert collect then plentifulvotaries; but as we move on the dulness will develop itself, andthen come the morning breakfast, and the water party, and the _fetechampetre_, all desperate attempts to produce variety with oldmaterials, and to occasion a second effect by a cause which is alreadyexhausted.
These philosophical remarks precede another introduction to the publicball-room at Doncaster. Mrs. Dallington Vere and Miss Dacre are walkingarm in arm at the upper end of the room.
'You are disappointed, love, about Arundel?' said Mrs. Dallington.
'Bitterly; I never counted on any event more certainly than on hisreturn this summer.'
'And why tarrieth the wanderer? unwillingly of course?'
'Lord Darrell, who was to have gone over as _Charge d'affaires_, hasannounced to his father the impossibility of his becoming a diplomatist,so our poor _attache_ suffers, and is obliged to bear the _portefeuillead interim_.'
'Does your cousin like Vienna?'
'Not at all. He is a regular John Bull; and, if I am to judge from hiscorrespondence, he will make an excellent ambassador in one sense, forI think his fidelity and his patriotism may be depended on. We seldomserve those whom we do not love; and, if I am to believe Arundel, thereis neither a person nor a place on the whole Continent that affords himthe least satisfaction.'
'How singular, th
en, that he should have fixed on such a _metier_; but,I suppose, like other young men, his friends fixed for him?'
'Not at all. No step could be less pleasing to my father than hisleaving England; but Arundel is quite unmanageable, even by papa. He isthe oddest but the dearest person in the world!'
'He is very clever, is he not?'
'I think so. I have no doubt he will distinguish himself, whatevercareer he runs; but he is so extremely singular in his manner that I donot think his general reputation harmonises with my private opinion.'
'And will his visit to England be a long one?'
'I hope that it will be a permanent one. I, you know, am his confidant,and entrusted with all his plans. If I succeed in arranging somethingaccording to his wishes, I hope that he will not again quit us.'
'I pray you may, sweet! and wish, love, for your sake, that he wouldenter the room this moment.'
'This is the most successful meeting, I should think, that ever wasknown at Doncaster,' said Miss Dacre. 'We are, at least, indebted to theDuke of St. James for a very agreeable party, to say nothing of all thegloves we have won.'
'How do you like the Duke of Burlington?'
'Much. There is a calm courtliness about him which I think veryimposing. He is the only man I ever saw who, without being very young,was not an unfit companion for youth. And there is no affectation ofjuvenility about him. He involuntarily reminds you of youth, as an emptyorchestra does of music.'
'I shall tell him this. He is already your devoted; and I have nodoubt that, inspired at the same time by your universal charms andour universal hints, I shall soon hail you Duchess of Burlington. DonArundel will repent his diplomacy.'
'I thought I was to be another Duchess this morning.'
'You deserve to be a triple one. But dream not of the unhappy patron ofSanspareil. There is something in his eyes which tells me he is not amarrying man.'
There was a momentary pause, and Miss Dacre spoke.
'I like his brother steward, Bertha. Sir Lucius is witty and candid. Itis an agreeable thing to see a man who had been so gay, and who has hadso many temptations to be gay, turn into a regular domestic character,without losing any of those qualities which made him an ornament tosociety. When men of the world terminate their career as prudently asSir Lucius, I observe that they are always amusing companions, becausethey are perfectly unaffected.'
'No one is more unaffected than Lucius Grafton. I am quite happy to findyou like him; for he is an old friend of mine, and I know that he has agood heart.'
'I like him especially because he likes you.'
'Dearest!'
'He introduced me to Lady Afy. I perceive that she is very attached toher husband.'
'Lady Afy is a charming woman. I know no woman so truly elegant as LadyAfy. The young Duke, you know they say, greatly admires Lady Afy.'
'Oh! does he? Well now, I should have thought her rather a sentimentaland serious donna; one very unlikely------'
'Hush! here come two cavaliers.'
The Dukes of Burlington and St. James advanced.
'We are attracted by observing two nymphs wandering in this desert,'said his Grace of Burlington. This was the Burgundy.
'And we wish to know whether there be any dragon to destroy, any ogre todevour, any magician to massacre, or how, when, and where we can testifyour devotion to the ladies of our love,' added his Grace of St. James.This was the champagne.
'The age of chivalry is past,' said Miss Dacre. 'Bores have succeededto dragons, and I have shivered too many lances in vain ever to hope fortheir extirpation; and as for enchantments----'
'They depend only upon yourself,' gallantly interrupted the Duke ofBurgundy. Psha!--Burlington.
'Our spells are dissolved, our wands are sunk five fathom deep; we hadretired to this solitude, and we were moralising,' said Mrs. DallingtonVere.
'Then you were doing an extremely useless and not very magnanimousthing,' said the Duke of St. James; 'for to moralise in a desert is nogreat exertion of philosophy. You should moralise in a drawing-room; andso let me propose our return to that world which must long have missedus. Let us do something to astound these elegant barbarians. Look atthat young gentleman: how stiff he is! A Yorkshire Apollo! Look at thatold lady; how elaborately she simpers! The Venus of the Riding! Theyabsolutely attempt to flirt. Let us give them a gallop!'
He was advancing to salute this provincial couple; but his more maturecompanion repressed him.
'Ah! I forgot,' said the young Duke. 'I am Yorkshire. If I were awestern, like yourself, I might compromise my character. Your Gracemonopolises the fun.'
'I think you may safely attack them,' said Miss Dacre. 'I do not thinkyou will be recognised. People entertain in this barbarous country, suchvulgar, old-fashioned notions of a Duke of St. James, that I have notthe least doubt your Grace might have a good deal of fun without beingfound out.'
'There is no necessity,' said the Duke, 'to fly from Miss Dacre foramusement. By-the-bye, you make a good repartee. You must permit me tointroduce you to my friend, Lord Squib. I am sure you would agree so.'
'I have been introduced to Lord Squib.'
'And you found him most amusing? Did he say anything which vindicates myappointment of him as my court jester?'
'I found him modest. He endeavoured to excuse his errors by being yourcompanion; and to prove his virtues by being mine.'
'Treacherous Squib! I positively must call him out. Duke, bear him acartel.'
'The quarrel is ours, and must be decided here,' said Mrs. DallingtonVere. 'I second Miss Dacre.'
'We are in the way of some good people here, I think,' said the Duke ofBurlington, who, though the most dignified, was the most considerate ofmen; 'at least, here are a stray couple or two staring as if they wishedus to understand we prevented a set.'
'Let them stare,' said the Duke of St. James; 'we were made to be lookedat. 'Tis our vocation, Hal, and they are gifted with vision purposely tobehold us.'
'Your Grace,' said Miss Dacre, 'reminds me of my old friend, PrinceRubarini, who told me one day that when he got up late he always gaveorders to have the sun put back a couple of hours.'
'And you, Miss Dacre, remind me of my old friend, the Duchess of Nevers,who told me one day that in the course of her experience she had onlymet one man who was her rival in repartee.'
'And that man,' asked Mrs. Vere.
'Was your slave, Mrs. Dallington,' said the young Duke, bowingprofoundly, with his hand on his heart.
'I remember she said the same thing to me,' said the Duke of Burlington,'about ten years before.'
'That was her grandmother, Burley,' said the Duke of St. James.
'Her grandmother!' said Mrs. Dallington, exciting the contest.
'Decidedly,' said the young Duke. 'I remember my friend always spoke ofthe Duke of Burlington as grandpapa.'
'You will profit, I have no doubt, then, by the company of so venerablea friend,' said Miss Dacre.
'Why,' said the young Duke, 'I am not a believer in the perfectibilityof the species; and you know, that when we come to a certain point----'
'We must despair of improvement,' said the Duke of Burlington.
'Your Grace came forward, like a true knight, to my rescue,' said MissDacre, bowing to the Duke of Burlington.
'Beauty can inspire miracles,' said the Duke of St. James.
'This young gentleman has been spoiled by travel, Miss Dacre,' said theDuke of Burlington. 'You have much to answer for, for he tells every onethat you were his guardian.'
The eyes of Miss Dacre and the Duke of St. James met. He bowed with thatgraceful impudence which is, after all, the best explanation for everypossible misunderstanding.
'I always heard that the Duke of St. James was born of age,' said MissDacre.
'The report was rife on the Continent when I travelled,' said Mrs.Dallington Vere.
'That was only a poetical allegory, which veiled the precocious resultsof my fair tutor's exertions.'
'Ho
w discreet he is!' said the Duke of Burlington. 'You may tellimmediately that he is two-and-forty.'
'We are neither of us, though, off the _pave_ yet, Burlington; so whatsay you to inducing these inspiring muses to join the waltz which isjust now commencing?'
The young Duke offered his hand to Miss Dacre, and, followed bytheir companions, they were in a few minutes lost in the waves of thewaltzers.