“Have you nothing to say for yourself, young gentleman?”
“Sir,” I replied, trying to assume a firm tone, “I will only say
that Lady Arabella, meaning to treat me like her lap-dog, kissed me
on the nose, as she does that beast of hers; and as an officer and a
gentleman, I felt called upon to pay her back; and for every smack she
gave me on my nose, I gave her two back in the mouth, to show her that
an officer in his Majesty’s sea-service is a man, and not a lap-dog.”
“Do you hear that, Sir Peter?” asked Lady Hawkshaw, with terrible
earnestness. “He does not deny his guilt. What think you of his
conduct?”
“Think, ma’am!” shouted Sir Peter, “I think if he had done anything
else, it would have been clean against the articles of war, and I
myself would have seen that he was kicked out of his Majesty’s service.
I shall send for my solicitor, to-morrow morning, to put a codicil to
my will, giving Richard Glyn a thousand pounds at my decease.”
At this the gentlemen roared, and Lady Arabella, seizing the lap-dog,
hid her face in his long hair, while even Daphne smiled and blushed.
As for Lady Hawkshaw, for once she was disconcerted and walked out,
glaring over her shoulder at Sir Peter.
There was much laughter, Sir Peter joining in; but after a while the
gentlemen left, and Sir Peter went out, and Daphne, who I saw was
disgusted with my conduct, walked haughtily away, in spite of Lady
Arabella’s playful protests that she was afraid to remain alone in the
room with me.
One thing had puzzled me extremely, and that was her calmness, and even
gaiety, when she had no means of knowing how Overton had come off in
the meeting, and I said to her,--
“How did you know, or do you know, whether Philip Overton and Giles
Vernon are alive at this moment?”
“By your face, Dicky,” she answered, trying to give me a fillip on the
nose, which I successfully resisted. “I was in agony until I saw your
face. Then I gave one great breath of joy and relief, and my play with
my lap-dog, which had been torture to me, became delight. But tell me
the particulars.”
“No, Madam,” said I; “I tell you nothing.”