MR. WOGAN ACTS AS LIGHTNING-CONDUCTOR
AT LADY OXFORD'S ROUT
Mr. Wogan steered his captive through Petty France. It was about ten
of the clock, a night of moonlight and young spring, a night for poets
to praise and lovers to enjoy. Mr. Wogan was not, at the moment, a
lover, and poetry was out of his mind.
'One trifle I forgot to mention,' he said. 'I saw Montague come out of
your new lodgings this evening. He bade his chairmen go to Queen's
Square.'
'Montague? How could he know where to look for me? What can he want
with me?'
'I misdoubt he was not very well pleased with the ballad, and would
have you explain it.'
'Montague,' sneered Mr. Kelly, with a touch of temper; 'I am grieved I
missed him.'
'You need not grieve, for you will see him to-night. So there's balm
for your grief, and another reason why you should sup with Lady
Oxford.'
The Parson stepped out more briskly after that, and Wogan could not
refrain from remarking upon his new alacrity.
'It is after all a very human sort of a world, as worlds go,' said he.
'Here's a man with all his hopes crumbling to grave-dust about him,
and the mere prospect of a quarrel with another man whom he has never
spoken to, on account of a woman he has a great contempt for, will
make all his blood flow quicker.' For it was evident that, though the
Parson no longer cared a straw for Smilinda's favours, he had not
forgiven the man who had supplanted him in them.
At the further end of the street along which they walked, one house
threw out into the night a great blaze of light, and a noise of many
voices. As Wogan perceived it, a certain improvement upon his plan
came into his head.
'George,' said he, as he directed his captive towards the house, 'will
you resolve me a theological quandary? Do the doctors of your sect
consider as binding a promise given to a person of a different faith?'
'Assuredly they do,' cried Kelly. 'Dr. Hooker plainly writes--'
'I shall take your word for it, without Hooker's bond. Next, does your
Reverence reckon it immoral to shake an elbow on occasion?'
'Even the very Puritans, at the height of their power, doubted if they
could proceed against dicers by way of the greater excommunication. We
read that the Chosen People themselves cast lots--whence I argue for a
permitted latitude.'
'Well, then, we are opposite the doors of Le Queux's Temple of Hazard;
you may hear through the windows how the devout are calling the main.
Now I must take your promise, as you say it is binding, to wait here
in obedience to your commanding officer. A wise leader will ever send
out scouts to inspect a dangerous pass. I shall reconnoitre at Lady
Oxford's: proper precautions should never be neglected, even in a
friendly country. If I do not return, or send, in forty minutes by
your watch, you must follow. All will seem safe.'
'But, Nick, what if they take you? Sure we had best go together.'
'They will not arrest me alone. You don't loose your gun at a rabbit
when you are stalking a deer. I am not the keeper of secrets, but the
King's mere servant, to give knocks and to take them. I write no
letters, and none write them to me. It is Mr. Johnson they will be
stalking, if anyone at all, never fear, and they will not shoot at the
rabbit whilst Mr. Johnson is out of gunshot. In the meantime, have you
any money?'
'Just enough to pay my chairmen.'
Mr. Wogan turned his pockets inside out.
'Then here are ten guineas. In my belief our luck must be somewhere,
if a man would look for it, and it may very well be lurking in the
cavern of a dice-box. Lose or win, if you hear nothing of me, you
march forwards and occupy Queen's Square in forty minutes. It is ten
o'clock now. And if you do not join me in forty minutes I walk
straight to your lodgings and take my chance.'
'So be it,' said Kelly, pocketing Mr. Wogan's gold, and stepping
reluctantly into the house of Le Queux. Mr. Wogan waited until the
door closed upon him, and then went on his way alone to Queen's
Square.
He had not displayed the whole face of his purpose to the Parson. It
was not merely to reconnoitre that he pushed forward. The Parson might
desire an occasion with the Colonel, but Wogan, for Miss Townley's
sake, meant to meet the Colonel first. Betrothed men should not be
brawlers, and George was hardly a match for the Colonel.
The Colonel was not, in the nature of things, likely to feel
well-disposed towards the Parson. The ballad would have turned that
ill-disposition into a genuine hostility. So here was one of the
reasons, besides the wish to reconnoitre, why Wogan left his
friend behind him in Le Queux's gaming-rooms. He would be the
lightning-conductor; he would pick a quarrel with the Colonel before
Mr. Kelly arrived, if by any means that could be brought about.
Mr. Wogan stopped in the shadow a few yards from Lady Oxford's house,
and watched. It was a night of triumph for Lady Oxford. A score or so
of link-boys yelled and flashed their torches about the portico;
carriages and chairs pressed towards the door. Gentlemen with stars
upon their velvet coats, and ladies altogether swaddled in lace and
hoops thronged up the steps. But of the possible messengers for whom
Mr. Wogan looked, not one was to be seen in any corner. Timidity
itself might have slept secure. Only a few ragged loiterers stood
about in the roadway on the look-out for a lace handkerchief or a
convenient pocket. Wogan crossed the road and joined the throng upon
the stairs.
He had carried it off boldly enough at the Deanery, and in the street
with Kelly, but, as he walked on alone, the fumes of the Florence wine
escaped from the seat of his reasoning faculties. His logic did not
seem so conclusive, and he felt an ugly double-edge on some of his
arguments. Thus, the plot had certainly been discovered, yet Kelly had
not been pounced upon. This might be a generosity of Mr. Scrope's (who
had behaved as handsomely before), but again, what if Mr. Kelly's
first suspicions were true? What if Lady Oxford had learned something?
What if this rout were intended to enable her to savour her revenge
for the ballad? The thing was not beyond Wogan's power of belief, and
the more he gazed on this perspective, the less he enjoyed it. Under
her roof, however, for the sake of her own credit, Kelly and he must
be safe from arrest. Besides it might be that her Ladyship was
ignorant of the ballad. Reflecting on these doubts, and thankful for
this tender mercy, Wogan's heart was ill at ease, though he put on a
face of brass. The chatter which buzzed at his inattentive ears seemed
the most impertinent thing in the world. At each step a flowered
petticoat swung against his legs, or a fan, held by a hand in a
perfumed glove, knocked against his elbow, and somehow the fine
gentlemen and ladies in their fine clothes seemed to him at that
moment as incongruous as a nightmare. Scraps of gossip of which he
took no note at the time, for no reason whatever stuck in his mind,
and he remembered them quite clearly afterwards; how that Lady
Holderness was sunk in all the joys of love, notwithstanding she
wanted the use of her two hands by a rheumatism; and Mrs. Hervey,
_revenue_ from such bagatelles as honour and reputation, had taken to
herself two most fascinating lovers, and all the envy of her sex. A
shrill lady behind Mr. Wogan's shoulder was proposing a general act
for divorcing all the people of England, so that those who pleased
might marry again, whereby many reputations which stood in dire peril
would be saved from exposure. Mr. Wogan had much ado not to shout
'Hold your tongues, will you? Here, maybe, is life and death in the
balance.'
He had got about half-way up the stairs when the shrill voice changed
its tune, and now Mr. Wogan pricked up his ears.
'You have heard the new ballad? Oh, the sweetest, most malicious
thing. You must certainly hear it. Smilinda, the Parson, and the
Colonel. You know who Smilinda is? The Parson and the Colonel make a
guess easy.' She quoted a line or two. 'It appears that the Parson has
consoled himself with Rose, and snaps his fingers at Smilinda. Who
wrote it? No one but Smilinda's dear friend, Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, that I will wager. 'Tis the most ingenious thing; and most
ingeniously given to the town just at the time when it will sting
most. Poor Smilinda.' The voice went off into a giggle, in the midst
of which Mr. Wogan distinguished a name--Lord Sidney Beauclerk's. Mr.
Wogan would hardly have heeded the name had he not heard it again
twice before he reached the stairhead, and each time in that same
conjunction with the Parson and the Colonel, and the malicious aptness
of the ballad. Even then he gave but scanty heed to Lord Sidney
Beauclerk, for the knowledge that the ballad was indeed become the
common talk occupied his thoughts, and so thoroughly, that it was the
nearest thing imaginable but he gave his name as Mr. Wogan to the
lackey who announced him.
Mr. Hilton, however, was announced, and Mr. Hilton stepped through the
great doorway into the room, and made his bow. At the first he was
sensible only of a great blaze of light spotted here and there with
the flames of candles; of a floor polished like a mirror, of a throng
of misty faces, a hubbub of voices, and a gorgeous motley of colours
like the Turkish bazaars Lady Mary was used to describe. Then the
faces grew distinct. Mr. Wogan noticed one or two of the _honest_
party, who, knowing his incognito, threw a startled glance at him, and
like the rats from the sinking ship, scuttled away as soon as his eyes
met theirs.
He looked around him for Lady Oxford. He could not see her in the
crowd which ebbed and flowed about the floor. There were card tables
set against the walls; doubtless she would be seated at one of them.
He glanced down the line of tables to his left. He did not see Lady
Oxford, but his attention was seized by one particular table. It stood
empty; a few packs of cards waited upon it for the players to handle,
but by some strange chance it stood empty. It was the one vacant table
in the room.
Mr. Wogan was an Irishman, and now and again had his visionary
moments, though he said little about them. As he looked at that one
empty table a queer sort of fancy crept into his head, and, to be
frank, struck something of a chill into his veins. It came upon him
slowly that the table was not in truth empty at all; that in the midst
of this velvet company, all jewels and compliments, there sat at this
table a grey shrouded figure which silently awaited its player.
Mr. Wogan was roused by a touch on his elbow.
'Mr. Hilton?'
Mr. Hilton saw a dapper, young gentleman at his side who looked like
nothing so much as a tangle of ribbons swept up from a milliner's
shop.
'To be sure,' said Wogan.
'Her ladyship sits yonder.'
Mr. Wogan looked. Her ladyship sat with her back towards him at the
table nearest to that which stood empty. She had been screened from
his sight by the young gentleman now at his elbow. As Wogan looked,
Lady Oxford turned with an anxious smile and a glance beyond his
shoulder. The smile, the glance braced Mr. Wogan. For doubtless her
ladyship looked to discover whether the Parson followed in his steps.
He approached Lady Oxford. By her side sat Colonel Montague, black as
thunder, and with a certain uneasy air of humiliation, like a man that
finds himself ridiculously placed, and yet has not the courage to
move. Mr. Wogan was encouraged; he could have wished the Colonel in no
other mood. Mr. Wogan suddenly understood that it was himself who was
cast to play with the shrouded figure, and the stake was the privilege
of crossing swords with Montague.
From the Colonel his eye strayed to a youth who stood by Lady Oxford's
chair, and the sight of him clean took Wogan's breath away. It was not
merely his face, though even in that bright company he shone a planet
among stars. Nature, indeed, thought Wogan, must have robbed a good
many women of their due share of looks before she compounded so much
beauty in the making of one man. But even more remarkable than his
beauty was his extraordinary likeness to Wogan's King. At the first
glance Wogan would have sworn that this youth was the King, grown
younger, but that he knew his Majesty was at Antwerp waiting for the
Blow to fall. At the second, however, he remarked a difference. The
youth had the haunting eyes of the Stuarts, only they were lit with
gaiety and sparkled with success; he had the clear delicate features
of the Stuarts, only they were rounded out of their rueful length, and
in place of a sad gravity, were bright with a sunny contentment.
Misfortune had cast no shadows upon the face, had dug no hollows about
the eyes.
Lady Oxford spoke to this paragon, smiled at him, drooped towards him.
The Colonel shifted a foot, set his lips tight and frowned.
Wogan placed a hand upon his guide's sleeve.
'Will you tell me, if you please, the name of her ladyship's new
friend?'
The young gentleman stared at Wogan.
'Let me perish, Mr. Hilton, but you are strangely out of the fashion.
Or is it wit thus to affect an ignorance of our new conqueror, for
whom women pine with love and men grow sour with envy? But indeed it
is wit--the most engaging pleasantry. 'Twill make your reputation, Mr.
Hilton.'
'It is pure ignorance,' interrupted Wogan curtly.
'Indeed? But I cannot bring myself to believe it.' He stared at Wogan
as though he was gazing at one of Dr. Swift's Yahoos. 'Slit my weazand
if I can. Sir, he is the gold leaf upon the pill of the world. For his
sake dowagers mince in white and silver, and at times he has to take
to his bed to protect himself from their assiduities.'
'He has a dangerous face for these times,' again Mr. Wogan broke in.
'Blame his grandmother for that, Mr. Hilton; he is of the royal blood.
Nell Gwynn of pious memory gave his father birth. Our last Charles was
his grandsire; he hath Queen Mary's eyes. It is Lord Sidney
Beauclerk.'
'I thought as much. He is a very intimate friend of her ladyship's?'
'Mr. Hilton, the world is very _grossier_,' remarked his guide, with a
smirk.
Mr. Wogan could have laughed. He understood why the Colonel looked so
black, why the ballad was so maliciously apt, why my Lord Sidney
Beauclerk was coupled with the Parson and the Colonel in the common
talk. Her ladyship was taking a new lover. Colonel Montague was the
crumpled ribbon that has done good service but is tossed into the
cupboard to make way for fresher colours. The ballad was apt indeed.
Mr. Wogan's spirits rose with a bound. Sure here was an occasion for
picking a quarrel with the Colonel ready to his hand. He bowed very
low to her ladyship. Her ladyship went on punting.
Colonel Montague looked at him, and then looked at him again with the
same perplexity which Mr. Wogan had found so distasteful one evening
in St. James's Street three years before; but he said nothing. Her
ladyship laid down a card and gave Mr. Wogan a hand, which he kissed
with proper ceremony.
'You have come late, Mr. Hilton,' she said; 'and you have come, it
seems--alone?'
'Madam,' replied Wogan, with a glance of great sympathy towards the
Colonel, and in his softest brogue, 'men are born to loneliness as the
sparks fly upward.'
The Colonel took his meaning, and his face flushed. Wogan's spirits
rose higher. If only Montague was strung to the same pitch of
exasperation and injury as the Parson had been in the like
circumstances! The supposition seemed probable. Mr. Wogan could have
rubbed his hands in sheer content. The Colonel, however, made no
rejoinder, and Mr. Wogan had to amuse himself by watching the play.
It was little amusement, however, that Mr. Wogan got; on the contrary,
as he watched, his fears returned to him. Her ladyship was evidently
in something of a flutter. She did not show her usual severe attention
to the game. Now she called her black boy Sambo to bring her fan; now
she would pat her spaniel; now she would gaze through the crowd of
perruques and laces towards the door. Her smile was fixed even when
she paid her losses, and that was not her way, she being a bad loser.
She was watching for someone, and that someone without a doubt was Mr.
Kelly. Wogan could not but ask himself with what intention she
watched. Her ladyship was taking a new lover, and for that reason the
ballad struck her hard--if she knew of it. Smilinda was not the
woman to forgive the blow. She would assuredly blame Kelly for the
ballad--if she knew of it. Had she lured him here to strike back? She
turned once more to Mr. Wogan, as though she would put some question
to him; but, before she could open her lips, a name was bawled up the
stairs, and a sudden hush fell upon the room. The throng in the
doorway dissolved as if by magic, and between the doorway and Lady
Oxford's chair a clear path was drawn. The name was Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu's. Everyone then knew of the ballad and laid it at Lady Mary's
door. Everyone? Mr. Wogan asked himself. Did Lady Oxford know?
Montague frowned and drummed with his knuckles on the table; it was
the only sound heard in the room. Then Lord Sidney noisily thrust back
his chair, and, stepping past Lady Oxford, stood in the open space
between her and the door with a frank boyish championship for which
Mr. Wogan at once pitied and liked him.
The name was passed up the stairs from lackey to lackey, growing
louder with each repetition. The silence was followed by a quick
movement which ran through the room like a ripple across a pool, as
each head was turned towards Lady Oxford to note how she would bear
herself. She rose, the radiant goddess of hospitality.
'There is no striving, Colonel Montague, against this run of luck,'
she said, with the most natural ease; 'but my dear Lady Mary is come
to save me from ruin. Mrs. Hewett,' she turned to her opposite, 'will
you be tallier to our table? The bank is open to a bidder. No? Ah!'
and she took a step forwards to where her champion was standing apart,
his hand on his hip, his face raised, ready to encounter even so
dangerous an antagonist as Lady Mary, 'my Lord Sidney Beauclerk, you
are not afraid?' He looked at her, from her to the door. 'I am your
servant,' said she, with her eyelids half-closed over her eyes, 'your
grateful servant,' and she motioned him to the table; 'for, being a
woman, I positively die to hear what new scandal dear Lady Mary has
set on foot.'
She spoke with an affectionate compassion for Lady Mary's foible and
an air of innocence which quite took aback the most part of her
guests. Mr. Wogan, however, was better acquainted with her ladyship's
resources, and, wishing to know for certain whether Lady Oxford knew
of the ballad;
'I can satisfy your ladyship's curiosity,' he said bluntly; and with
that the noise of the room sank to silence again. He was still
standing by the card-table. Lady Oxford turned about to him something
quickly. It may be she was disconcerted, or that anger got the upper
hand with her. At all events, for an instant she dropped the mask. She
gave Wogan one look; he never remembers, in all the strange incidents
of his life, to have seen eyes so hard, so cold, and so cruel, or a
face so venomous. In a second the look was gone, and the prettiest
smile of inquiry was softening about her mouth. 'There is a new poem,
is there not, from Lady Mary's kind muse?' said Wogan.
'A new poem!' cried she. 'Let us hear it, I pray. It would be the
worst of ill-breeding had I not knowledge enough to congratulate my
friend. The happy subject of the poem, Mr. Hilton?'
Lady Oxford took a step towards him. She was all courtesy and
politeness, but Mr. Wogan, while he recognised her bravery, had her
look of a second ago very distinct before his eyes, and was in no mood
for pity. He bowed with no less courtesy.
'It is thought to be an allegory,' he said, 'wherein the arm of flesh
is preferred before a spiritual--Blade.
The rejoinder, as it seemed, was approved, for the ladies whispered
behind their fans, and here and there a man checked a laugh. Lady
Oxford met the thrust with all the appearances of unconcern.
'And tagged with Latin, Mr. Hilton?' she asked. That was enough for
Mr. Wogan. Lady Oxford knew the ballad, and gave it to Lady Mary.
Without a doubt she must believe Mr. Kelly supplied Lady Mary with the
matter of it. 'Of a truth the ballad will' be tagged with Latin. Sure
Lady Mary has scholars enough among her friends who would not let her
wit go naked when a scrap of Latin could cover it decently--indeed,
too decently at times, for, though we always see the Latin, one is
hard put to it now and then to discover the wit. Do you not think so,
Mr.--Hilton?' She paused ever so slightly before the name, and ever so
slightly drawled it, with just a hint of menace in her accent. Mr.
Hilton, none the less, got a clear enough knowledge of the dangerous
game he was playing. Lady Oxford had but to say 'Mr. Wogan,' and it
would not be Mr. Wogan who would have the chance of playing a hand
with the figure at the empty table.
Lady Mary's name was now called out from the doorway, and Mr. Wogan
was glad enough to leave the encounter to her worthier hands. Lady
Mary sailed into the room; Lady Oxford swam forwards to meet her. The
two ladies dissolved almost in smiles and courtesies.
'We were in despair, dearest Lady Mary; we feared you would baulk us
of your company. France, they said, was happy in your sunshine.'
'France, madam?' asked Lady Mary.
'It was your dear friend, Mr. Pope, who said you had withdrawn
thither--la, in the strangest hurry!'
'Indeed, very like! I denied Mr. Pope my door two days ago, and his
vanity could only conceive I was gone abroad.'
'Your ladyship was wise. A poet's tongue wags most indiscreetly. Not
that anyone believes those fanciful creatures. A romance of a--a M.
Remond for whom you should have placed money in the sinking South Sea;
the Frenchman arriving in London in a hurry; Lady Mary in a hurry
arriving in France; a kind of country dance figure of partners
crossing. A story indubitably false, to the knowledge of all your
ladyship's friends, as I took occasion to say at more than one house
where the rumour was put about.'
Lady Oxford had scored the first point in the game, as Wogan reckoned
and marked 'Fifteen--love' with chagrin. However, he took some
comfort from Lady Mary's face, which was grown dangerously sweet and
good-natured. Nor was his confidence vain, for Lady Mary did more than
hold her ground.
'Your ladyship's good will,' said she, 'is my sufficient defence. My
Lord Oxford is here? It is long since I paid him my respects.'
'Alas, my dear Lord has lain these last six weeks at Brampton Bryan,'
sighed Lady Oxford, 'with a monstrous big toe all swathed in flannel.
Your ladyship, I fear, can only greet my husband by proxy.'
There was just a sparkle of triumph in Lady Mary's eyes.
'By proxy!' she said; 'with all the willingness in the world;' and she
swept a courtesy to Colonel Montague, who was coming forward to join
them.
Lady Oxford flirted her fan before her face.
A murmur almost of applause ran from group to group of the company.
Mr. Wogan, who loved the game of tennis, marked 'Fifteen--all.'
At that moment a clock upon the mantelshelf chimed the half-hour. In
fifteen minutes the Parson would arrive, and Mr. Wogan had not played
his hand. He moved a few yards from the table at which Lord Sidney
Beauclerk, with his eyes upon Lady Oxford, was dealing the cards, and
stood apart by the empty table, wondering how he should do. He picked
up a pack of cards idly, and Lady Mary spoke again to Lady Oxford:
'I interrupted your ladyship's game.'
'Nay, your coming was the most welcome diversion. Colonel Montague,'
said Lady Oxford, as she was gliding back to her table, 'shared my
bank, and played with the worst of luck. I declare the Colonel has
ruined me;' and so retired out of range of Lady Mary's guns.
The Colonel followed Lady Oxford. Lady Mary turned to Mr. Wogan, and
in a voice loud enough for others than Mr. Wogan to hear:
'What!' said she, 'was Lady Oxford ruined by Colonel Montague? I did
not think their acquaintance was of so old a standing.'
'Thirty--fifteen,' said Mr. Wogan in an abstraction.
Lady Mary stared.
'I was but marking the game and scoring points to your ladyship,'
Wogan said.
Colonel Montague had heard Lady Mary's sally, for he stopped. Lord
Sidney Beauclerk had heard it, for he rose as though to mark his
disbelief, and handed Lady Oxford to her chair with a sort of air of
protection very pretty in the boy. It seemed, indeed, as though even
Lady Oxford was touched, for her face was half turned towards Mr.
Wogan, and he saw it soften with something like pity and her eyes swam
for an instant in tears. It was new, no doubt, for the spider to feel
compassion for the fly, but Mr. Wogan was not altogether surprised,
for he began to find the fly very much to his own taste. It was a
clean-limbed, generous lad, that looked mighty handsome in the bravery
of his pink satin coat, and without one foppish affectation from his
top-knot to his shoe-buckles.
Mr. Wogan was still holding the pack of cards in his hands.
'You have a mind to play? 'asked Lady Mary.
Wogan looked at the clock. He had only fifteen minutes for his
business as lightning conductor. In fifteen minutes the Parson would
be here.
'If you will present me to the player I have a mind to play with,'
said he, dropping the pack on the table.
'With all my heart,' said she; 'name him.'
'Colonel Montague.'
Her ladyship looked at Wogan doubtfully, and beckoned the Colonel with
her fan. The Colonel, who had his own feud with Lady Mary over the
supposed authorship of the ballad, made as though he had not seen her
summons. Lady Mary repeated it with no better result, and finally took
a step or two towards him. Montague could no longer affect to
misunderstand.
'I wish to present you to a friend,' she said, as Colonel Montague
joined her.
'If your ladyship will excuse me,' said the Colonel coldly, 'I have no
taste for the acquaintance of Irish adventurers.'
Mr. Wogan was not out of earshot, and laughed gleefully as he caught
the insult. Here was his opportunity, come in the nick of time.
'Did anyone mention me?' he said pleasantly, as he came round the
card-table. But before the Colonel could answer, or Lady Mary
interfere, the servant at the door announced:
'Dr. and Miss Townley!'
Wogan's heart gave a leap. He swore beneath his breath.
'Miss Townley?' asked her ladyship, who had caught his oath.
'Is Rose, _the_ Rose,' replied Wogan.
Lady Mary knew the ballad, knew who Rose was, and looked perplexed as
to why Lady Oxford had asked the girl. Mr. Wogan, on the other hand,
was no longer perplexed at all. His doubt was now a certainty. Lady
Oxford had prepared a scenic revenge, a _coup de theater_. To this
end, and to prove her ignorance of the ballad, she had invited Kelly,
Montague, and Rose.
Of the _coup de theater_ her ladyship had got more than she bargained
for. On her bosom Miss Townley wore diamonds that caught the eye even
in that Aladdin's treasure house of shining stones, and among the
diamonds the portrait of Lady Oxford. Her ladyship saw it, and grew
white as marble. Miss Townley saw Lady Oxford, knew the face of the
miniature that she had thought was the Queen's, and blushed like the
dawn. Her hand flew to her neck as she courtesied deep to Lady
Oxford's courtesy; when she rose, by some miracle of female skill, the
miniature and the diamonds had vanished. Rising at the same moment,
Lady Oxford looked herself again. But the women understood each other
now, and, as they purred forth their _politesses_, Wogan knew that the
buttons were off the foils.
He had his own game to play, that would brook no waiting, and he
played it without pause. Lady Mary had moved towards the door. Colonel
Montague was gliding back to his old position near Lord Sidney. Wogan
followed Colonel Montague and stopped him.
'Sir,' said he, in a low brogue, 'I fancied that I caught a little
word of yours that reflected on me counthry and me honour.'
'For your country, sir,' replied the Colonel politely, 'your speech
bewrayeth you, but the habitation of your honour is less discernible.'
''Faith, Colonel,' said Wogan, who found his plan answering to his
highest expectations, 'you are so ready with your tongue that you
might be qualifying for an Irishman. Doubtless you are as ready to
take a quiet little walk, in which case I shall be most happy to show
you where my honour inhabits. But, to speak the plain truth, it is
somewhat too near the point of my sword to make Lady Oxford's
drawing-room a convenient place for the exhibition.'
Colonel Montague smiled at the pleasantry in an agreeable way which
quite went to Wogan's heart.
'With all the goodwill imaginable,' said he, 'I will take that walk
with you to-morrow,' and he made a bow and turned away.
'But Colonel,' said Wogan in some disappointment, 'why not to-night?'
'There are certain formalities. For instance, I was not fortunate
enough to catch your name.'
''Tis as ancient as any in Ireland,' cried Wogan, in a heat, quite
forgetting his incognito. 'My forefathers--'
'Ah, sir, they were kings, no doubt,' interrupted Montague with the
gravest politeness.
'No, sir, viceroys only,' answered Wogan with indifference, 'up to
Edward I.'
'Your Highness,' said the Colonel, and he bowed to the ground, 'I
reckon to-morrow a more suitable time.'
Mr. Wogan was tickled out of his ill-humour, and began to warm to the
man.
'Sure, Colonel, you and I will be the best of good friends after I
have killed you, and for the love of mercy let that be to-night.
Look!' and stepping to the window he drew aside the curtain. 'Look,'
said he, peering out, 'it is the sweetest moonlight that ever kissed a
sword-blade! Oh, to-night, Colonel!' Then he dropped the curtain
something suddenly. He had seen a face in the street. 'You prefer
sunlight? Very well, sir. But you will acknowledge that to-morrow I
have the _earliest_ claims on your leisure.'
Colonel Montague bowed.
'The word, you will remember, was an Irish adventurer.' Wogan
impressed it upon him.
'Sir, I am wedded to the phrase. You will send your friend to my
lodgings at Mrs. Kilburne's, in Ryder Street.'
'Mrs. Kilburne's!' exclaimed Wogan.
Wogan might have guessed as much had he used his brains. It was at the
corner of Ryder Street that he had plumped upon Montague when he came
down to London from Glenshiel. It was under a portico in Ryder Street
that the Parson and he had seen Montague on the night they had driven
out on the first journey to Brampton Bryan. It was at Mrs. Kilburne's
door that Wogan had seen Montague that afternoon. The Colonel was her
fine gentleman upon the first floor. Sure, the Parson had the worst
luck in the world. At all events, the Colonel was a gentleman. Wogan
consoled himself with that reflection as he thought of Mr. Kelly's
despatch box in the scrutoire of his parlour below the Colonel's
rooms.
That thought led Wogan's eyes again to the clock. It was half an hour
past ten. The Parson was due in ten minutes.
'Good-bye t'ye, Colonel,' he said hastily to Montague, as he turned
towards the door. He almost knocked against Rose, who was standing
close by his elbow. She made an effort to detain him; he breathed a
word of apology. It did not occur to him then that she might have
overheard his conversation with the Colonel. He hurried past Lady
Oxford and Dr. Townley, who was talking of his schooldays, when he
knew Lord Oxford.
'Mr. Hilton,' cried her ladyship. Mr. Hilton was deaf as a bed-post.
For when he had looked out of the window at the moonlight he had seen
a face in the roadway of which the Parson should have knowledge before
he reached the house. It was that face which had made him drop the
curtain so quickly and fall in so quickly with the Colonel's
objections. A link-boy's torch had flashed for a second upon a man on
the other side of the road, and his face was Scrope's. Scrope was
watching the house.
Wogan pressed through the throng towards the door, but before he could
reach it a firm hand closed upon his arm. He looked round. Lord Sidney
Beauclerk was standing by his side with a flushed, angry face.
'A word with you, Mr. Hilton!'
'A hundred, my lord, in half an hour,' said Wogan, and shook himself
free. He must warn the Parson and turn him back from the house. But he
was too late. In the doorway of the house he met Mr. Kelly, whose face
wore a singular air of content. And on the other side of the road
stood Scrope with his head turned towards the doorway. Scrope knew
that the Parson had come.
Mr. Wogan took Kelly's arm, and led him to the shady side of the
street, out of the noisy crowd of lackeys and link-boys.
'Those divines err,' said Kelly, 'who condemn the occasional casting
of lots. It is not an ill game.'
'Then you found our lurking luck?'
'Six rouleaux of gold,' said Mr. Kelly, tenderly caressing his pocket.
'The sinews of war, and we are like to need them.'
'Then the coast is not clear?'
'Clear!' said Wogan, 'there is every sign of thunder, wind, and
earthquake. First, Montague is here!'
'And here is his Capulet!' said Kelly smiling.
Wogan smiled too, having secured his duel with the Colonel.
'Then Miss Townley is here, and, George, she was wearing my lady's
miniature. The women know each other.'
George's mouth opened, and his utterance was stayed. Then,
'It is a trap. I go home,' he said. Despair spoke in his voice.
'No!' Mr. Wogan's plans had changed.
'Why not? I have no more to lose, and my duty to do.'
'You do not go home, for Scrope is watching the house. He has seen you
come. He is behind us now.' Mr. Kelly's hand went to his sword, but
Wogan checked him. 'Don't let him think you know. We must leave the
house together, and your duty is to be just now where Miss Townley is.
Be quick!'
The argument had weight with Mr. Kelly. Wogan had his reasons for
advancing it. If they went away together, later, Wogan could engage
Mr. Scrope's attentions while the Parson went safely on to Ryder
Street. The two passed out of the shade, but not before George had
placed his hand in Wogan's. His hand was cold as ice.