ANOTHER LOVER.
The party at Rudham Park had hardly been a success,--nor was it much
improved in wit or gaiety when Mrs. Montacute Jones, Lord Giblet, and
Jack de Baron had gone away, and Canon Holdenough and his wife, with
Mr. Groschut, had come in their places. This black influx, as Lord
Brotherton called it, had all been due to consideration for his
Lordship. Mr. De Baron thought that his guest would like to see, at any
rate, one of his own family, and Lady Alice Holdenough was the only one
whom he could meet. As to Mr. Groschut, he was the Dean's bitterest
enemy, and would, therefore, it was thought, be welcome. The Bishop had
been asked, as Mr. De Baron was one who found it expedient to make
sacrifices to respectability; but, as was well known, the Bishop never
went anywhere except to clerical houses. Mr. Groschut, who was a
younger man, knew that it behoved him to be all things to all men, and
that he could not be efficacious among sinners unless he would allow
himself to be seen in their paths. Care was, of course, taken that
Lady Alice should find herself alone with her brother. It was probably
expected that the Marquis would be regarded as less of an ogre in the
country if it were known that he had had communication with one of the
family without quarrelling with her. "So you're come here," he said.
"I didn't know that people so pious would enter De Baron's doors."
"Mr. De Baron is a very old friend of the Canon's. I hope he isn't very
wicked, and I'm afraid we are not very pious."
"If you don't object, of course I don't. So they've all gone back to
the old house?"
"Mamma is there."
"And George?" he asked in a sharp tone.
"And George,--at present."
"George is, I think, the biggest fool I ever came across in my life. He
is so cowed by that man whose daughter he has married that he doesn't
know how to call his soul his own."
"I don't think that, Brotherton. He never goes to the deanery to stay
there."
"Then what makes him quarrel with me? He ought to know which side his
bread is buttered."
"He had a great deal of money with her, you know."
"If he thinks his bread is buttered on that side, let him stick to that
side and say so. I will regard none of my family as on friendly terms
with me who associate with the Dean of Brotherton or his daughter after
what took place up in London." Lady Alice felt this to be a distinct
threat to herself, but she allowed it to pass by without notice. She
was quite sure that the Canon would not quarrel with the Dean out of
deference to his brother-in-law. "The fact is they should all have gone
away as I told them, and especially when George had married the girl
and got her money. It don't make much difference to me, but it will
make a deal to him."
"How is Popenjoy, Brotherton?" asked Lady Alice, anxious to change the
conversation.
"I don't know anything about him."
"What!"
"He has gone back to Italy with his mother. How can I tell? Ask the
Dean. I don't doubt that he knows all about him. He has people
following them about, and watching every mouthful they eat."
"I think he has given all that up."
"Not he. He'll have to, unless he means to spend more money than I
think he has got."
"George is quite satisfied about Popenjoy now," said Lady Alice.
"I fancy George didn't like the expense. But he began it, and I'll
never forgive him. I fancy it was he and Sarah between them. They'll
find that they will have had the worst of it. The poor little beggar
hadn't much life in him. Why couldn't they wait?"
"Is it so bad as that, Brotherton?"
"They tell me he is not a young Hercules. Oh yes;--you can give my love
to my mother. Tell her that if I don't see her it is all George's
fault. I am not going to the house while he's there." To the Canon he
hardly spoke a word, nor was the Canon very anxious to talk to him. But
it became known throughout the country that the Marquis had met his
sister at Rudham Park, and the general effect was supposed to be good.
"I shall go back to-morrow, De Baron," he said to his host that same
afternoon. This was the day on which Jack had gone to Brotherton.
"We shall be sorry to lose you. I'm afraid it has been rather dull."
"Not more dull than usual. Everything is dull after a certain time of
life unless a man has made some fixed line for himself. Some men can
eat and drink a great deal, but I haven't got stomach for that. Some
men play cards; but I didn't begin early enough to win money, and I
don't like losing it. The sort of things that a man does care for die
away from him, and of course it becomes dull."
"I wonder you don't have a few horses in training."
"I hate horses, and I hate being cheated."
"They don't cheat me," said Mr. De Baron.
"Ah;--very likely. They would me. I think I made a mistake, De Baron,
in not staying at home and looking after the property."
"It's not too late, now."
"Yes, it is. I could not do it. I could not remember the tenants'
names, and I don't care about game. I can't throw myself into a litter
of young foxes, or get into a fury of passion about pheasants' eggs.
It's all beastly nonsense, but if a fellow could only bring himself to
care about it that wouldn't matter. I don't care about anything."
"You read."
"No, I don't. I pretend to read--a little. If they had left me alone I
think I should have had myself bled to death in a warm bath. But I
won't now. That man's daughter shan't be Lady Brotherton if I can help
it. I have rather liked being here on the whole, though why the d----
you should have a Germain impostor in your house, and a poor clergyman,
I can't make out."
"He's the Deputy Bishop of the diocese."
"But why have the Bishop himself unless he happen to be a friend? Does
your daughter like her marriage?"
"I hope so. She does not complain."
"He's an awful ass,--and always was. I remember when you used always to
finish up your books by making him bet as you pleased."
"He always won."
"And now you've made him marry your daughter. Perhaps he has won
there. I like her. If my wife would die and he would die, we might get
up another match and cut out Lord George after all." This speculation
was too deep even for Mr. De Baron, who laughed and shuffled himself
about, and got out of the room.
"Wouldn't you have liked to be a marchioness," he said, some hours
afterwards, to Mrs. Houghton. She was in the habit of sitting by him
and talking to him late in the evening, while he was sipping his
curacoa and soda water, and had become accustomed to hear odd things
from him. He liked her because he could say what he pleased to her, and
she would laugh and listen, and show no offence. But this last question
was very odd. Of course she thought that it referred to the old
overtures made to her by Lord George; but in that case, had she married
Lord George, she could only have been made a marchioness by his own
death,--by that and by the death of the little Popenjoy of whom she had
heard so much.
"If it had come in my way fairly," she said with an arch smile.
"I don't mean that you should have murdered anybody. Suppose you had
married me?"
"You never asked me, my lord."
"You were only eight or nine years old when I saw you last."
"Isn't it a pity you didn't get yourself engaged to me then? Such
things have been done."
"If the coast were clear I wonder whether you'd take me now."
"The coast isn't clear, Lord Brotherton."
"No, by George. I wish it were, and so do you too, if you'd dare to say
so."
"You think I should be sure to take you."
"I think you would. I should ask you at any rate. I'm not so old by ten
years as Houghton."
"Your age would not be the stumbling block."
"What then?"
"I didn't say there would be any. I don't say that there would not.
It's a kind of thing that a woman doesn't think of."
"It's just the kind of thing that women do think of."
"Then they don't talk about it, Lord Brotherton. Your brother you know
did want me to marry him."
"What, George? Before Houghton?"
"Certainly;--before I had thought of Mr. Houghton."
"Why the deuce did you refuse him? Why did you let him take that
little----" He did not fill up the blank, but Mrs. Houghton quite
understood that she was to suppose everything that was bad. "I never
heard of this before."
"It wasn't for me to tell you."
"What an ass you were."
"Perhaps so. What should we have lived upon? Papa would not have given
us an income."
"I could."
"But you wouldn't. You didn't know me then."
"Perhaps you'd have been just as keen as she is to rob my boy of his
name. And so George wanted to marry you! Was he very much in love?"
"I was bound to suppose so, my lord."
"And you didn't care for him!"
"I didn't say that. But I certainly did not care to set up housekeeping
without a house or without the money to get one. Was I wrong?"
"I suppose a fellow ought to have money when he wants to marry. Well,
my dear, there is no knowing what may come yet. Won't it be odd, if
after all, you should be Marchioness of Brotherton some day? After that
won't you give me a kiss before you say good-night."
"I would have done if you had been my brother-in-law,--or, perhaps, if
the people were not all moving about in the next room. Good-night,
Marquis."
"Good-night. Perhaps you'll regret some day that you haven't done what
I asked."
"I might regret it more if I did." Then she took herself off, enquiring
in her own mind whether it might still be possible that she should ever
preside in the drawing-room at Manor Cross. Had he not been very much
in love with her, surely he would not have talked to her like that.
"I think I'll say good-bye to you, De Baron," the Marquis said to his
host, that night.
"You won't be going early."
"No;--I never do anything early. But I don't like a fuss just as I am
going. I'll get down and drive away to catch some train. My man will
manage it all."
"You go to London?"
"I shall be in Italy within a week. I hate Italy, but I think I hate
England worse. If I believed in heaven and thought I were going there,
what a hurry I should be in to die."
"Let us know how Popenjoy is."
"You'll be sure to know whether he is dead or alive. There's nothing
else to tell. I never write letters except to Knox, and very few to
him. Good-night."
When the Marquis was in his room, his courier, or the man so called,
came to undress him. "Have you heard anything to-day?" he asked in
Italian. The man said that he had heard. A letter had reached him that
afternoon from London. The letter had declared that little Popenjoy was
sinking. "That will do Bonni," he said. "I will get into bed by
myself." Then he sat down and thought of himself, and his life, and his
prospects,--and of the prospects of his enemies.