Lady Lisle gave an angry, shuddering look of disgust as she glanced
round the sanctuary of the high priest of sport, noting the pictures and
hunting trophies, and then holding her highly-scented handkerchief to
her delicate nostrils, which were sharply assailed by spirituous
exhalations and the fumes of the noxious weed.
"Oh," she mused, "that it should come to this--a publican's daughter, a
low-bred wench. Oh, Hilton, Hilton! But--ah! I am determined. I will
see it to the end."
She was kept waiting quite five minutes, which she passed standing like
a statue in the middle of the hall, till there was a husky cough, and
Simpkins came hurrying out, trying with fat, clumsy fingers to thrust a
little white, folded paper, very suggestive of "the powder at night"
into his waistcoat pocket, where it refused at first to go.
"Beg pardon, my lady," he said, after a quick glance up at the gallery.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Very busy to-day."
"Mr Simpkins?" said the lady, haughtily.
"That's me, my lady; but if you want accommodation I'm afraid we're
full."
"My husband--Sir Hilton Lisle. He is here?" said the lady, sternly.
The trainer's jaw dropped, and, like lightning, a thought flashed
through his brain.
The wife, to stop the gentleman from mounting the mare! It was
salvation.
But the next moment the hope died out. In such an emergency the wife's
appeal would be as so much breath. It would be like grasping at a
shadow and letting the substance go.
"Do you not understand, my man?" said Lady Lisle, impatiently. "My
husband--he is here?"
"Sir Hilton Lisle, Bart.?" said the trainer, who determined to stick to
the substance and let the shadow glide. "Oh, no, my lady, he ain't
here."
"Where is he, then?"
"I dunno, my lady," replied the man, coolly. "At the races, I should
suppose."
"How could I find him in all that crowd?" murmured the unhappy woman.
Then, setting her teeth hard to suppress the feeling of passion that was
growing fast, she turned to the man again, and her voice was perfectly
firm and cold, as she said authoritatively: "You have a daughter, man?"
"That's right, my lady," said the trainer, and he smiled faintly. "Oh,"
he continued, "I suppose I know what brings your ladyship here."
And once more a thought crossed his mind as to the possibility of
stopping Sir Hilton's jockeyship by setting his wife upon his track.
But he dismissed it directly, to respond to his visitor's command.
"I suppose you do, sir," she said haughtily. "Send the woman here."
"Woman, eh? Why, she's a mere gal, my lady."
"Don't speak to me like that, man," cried Lady Lisle. "Where is your
daughter?"
"On the grand stand, I s'pose, along o' him."
"This is monstrous!" cried Lady Lisle, passionately. "Oh, man, can you
stand there with that base effrontery and speak to me like this?"
"Can I, my lady? Yes. Why not? I'm not your paid servant, and I
dessay if we totted up together and compared notes, I, Sam Simpkins,
trainer, could show as good a hincome as your ladyship. At least, I
could yesterday," he muttered.
"Yes, yes, no doubt; but have you no sense of the moral wrong? Are you
shameless, or ignorant of your responsibility to your child?"
"Well, you're a-pitching it pretty strong, my lady; but I won't kick,
for I dessay you do find it rather a bitter pill to swallow."
"Man, you are shameless!" cried Lady Lisle, and the trainer chuckled.
"Well, my lady, I'm not troubled much with that sort o' thing.
Bashfulness is a bit in the way in my trade."
"I'll set it down to ignorance, then."
"That's better, my lady. I never set up as a scholar."
"Let me appeal to you, then. Have you done nothing to stop it?"
"Never knowed a word about it till this blessed morning, my lady," cried
the trainer, with a display of indignation. "Saucy young baggage! She
kep' it dark enough."
"Ha! Then you have some feeling for your child."
"Feeling, my lady! Course I have; and I'd ha' stopped it if I'd known
before it was too late."
Lady Lisle winced as if she had received a blow. "But, now--now," she
cried, "you will immediately take proceedings?"
"Bah! What can I do?"
"Oh, think, man, of the wrong it is doing me."
"Tchah! It's of no use to talk now, my lady. Pride's a very nice thing
in its way, but they say it must have a fall. Love and natur', my lady,
gets the better of us all. You and me understands what it is, and you
see now that you couldn't always have him tied to your apron-string."
"Man, have you no feeling?"
"Quite enough for my business, my lady."
"But I insist you shall stop it at once."
"Don't I tell you, my lady," cried the trainer, with a glance up at
number one, "that it's too late? She'll be having him hear her
directly," he added to himself. "There, chuck it up, my lady," he
continued, "and go home. This place on a race day ain't sootable for
you. Take my word, you'll soon get used to it."
"The man is a monster," groaned Lady Lisle, wringing her hands. "Man,
man," she cried, "you shock me. If you have no feeling or respect for
your child--"
"Me, my lady? Of course, I have. Why," added the trainer, "I like it."
"Wretched man! Such depravity!"
"Depravity be blowed, my lady! Here, I can put up with a good deal, but
you're pitching it too strong. Come, I won't get in a temper with you,
my lady, though I am horribly tried just now. Come, I'm speaking fair
as a man can speak; hadn't you better climb down?"
"Think of the scandal, man."
"My name's Simpkins, my lady, please. If your set may call it a
scandal, mine won't mind. As for me, I think it's a very good thing for
the girl."
"I can bear no more of this," muttered Lady Lisle, faintly. "It is too
much. Oh! man, man, I looked for help and sympathy from you; but in
your shameless ignorance you have done nothing but outrage my feelings."
"Very sorry, my lady; but you should have come and met me civil-like, as
the father of as pretty a lass as ever stepped. 'Stead o' which you
comes in your carriage and walks in on stilts, and begins
a-bully-ragging me as if I was still Sir Hilton's servant. Now, look
here, my lady, you've kep' on calling me man, man, man, and it's true I
am a man, and a man with a temper; but I don't like to be reminded of it
over and over again, and in my own house, because them two began making
love, as is the nat'ralest thing in natur'."
Lady Lisle felt exhausted, and she made a gesture as if to speak.
"No, you've had your innings, my lady, and I don't keep calling you
woman, woman, woman. Now, here's what I've got to say as a fine-ale--
the thing's happened, and you've got to make the best of it. My Molly's
out yonder with the chap she loves and who loves her. You can't get at
'em, and if you behave sensible you'll get back in your carriage and go
straight home, and the sooner the better, or I shall have to show you
the door, for I've got something in the way of a big business to do. By
and by, when you get cool, you'll see as it's no use to be orty, and if
you like to come down off the stilts and ask my Molly to join you at the
Denes, well and good."
"Oh!" gasped the visitor in horror.
"Very well, if you don't I shan't fret. I know what you've done long
enough, keeping him like at the Denes; but I can afford it, even if I am
hard hit to-day. It only means putting an extra knife and fork at my
table, where he shall be welcome till you drop the orty and 'old your
'and--Hullo! Feel upset, my lady? That's pride and temper."
"Don't touch me, man!" panted the suffering woman; "it would be
pollution. Oh, Hilton, Hilton!" she moaned as she strove to steady
herself to the door and managed to walk out of the porch and step feebly
into the carriage.
"Home!" she said, in a deep, hollow voice before she sank back,
unconscious of the excitement and noise around, and moaned softly.
"Home? No; it is home no more."
This giving way to one set of feelings lasted but a few moments, for
there rose up before her imagination the figure of her husband seated
somewhere with her young and handsome rival, possibly hand in hand,
watching the scene before them, and a wave of fierce passion swept all
before it. The next minute, to the astonishment and satisfaction of her
disappointed coachman, who was longing to see one heat if not more, she
stood up in the barouche and prodded him with her parasol.
"Turn back," she said, "and drive to where I can have a good view of the
race."