Austin Ambrose had chambers in the Albany. He was not a rich man, as
he had remarked, but the rooms were comfortably, even luxuriously
furnished, and the taste displayed in their ornamentation and
decoration was of the best. There were good pictures, rare china, and
bronzes, that, if not priceless, were curious enough to be reckoned as
valuable.
How Mr. Austin Ambrose lived was a mystery, just as he himself was
somewhat of a mystery. He was supposed to have a small income, and he
was known to play an admirable hand at whist, and to wield a remarkably
good cue at billiards.
He was also a capital judge of a horse, and it was conjectured that he
added to his certain income by these usually uncertain adjuncts.
On the evening of Blair's avowal in the Leyton Woods, Austin Ambrose
sat over the dessert which followed his modest dinner.
A bottle of very fine claret was on the table, and he was sipping this
in silent abstraction, when the door burst open, and Lord Blair rushed
in.
Austin Ambrose looked up without a particle of surprise, but with a
faint smile of irony.
"House on fire?" he said.
"My dear old chappie!" exclaimed Blair, laying his strong hand on
Austin's shoulder, "I've such a lot to tell you! Austin, I've seen her!"
"Seen her? Seen whom?" said Austin raising his brows as if trying to
recollect, whereas he had been thinking of the "her" as Blair rushed
in. "Oh, the young lady, Miss--Miss Hale."
"Of course, of course!" exclaimed Blair, pacing up and down the room.
"Austin, old fellow, I don't know where to begin. I've only just come
back from Leyton and from her! Austin, she is an angel!"
"I dare say," was the cool comment. "And so you have been to Leyton.
Another fight, Blair?"
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Lord Blair. "Be serious, old fellow. My heart is
bursting with it all."
"Perhaps it will burst all the easier--at any rate you will be more
comfortable--if you sit down," said Austin Ambrose, dragging a chair
forward without rising. "Sit down, man, and don't wear my carpet out.
I'm not rich enough to afford another, you know."
Lord Blair sank into the chair and took the wine which the other man
poured out for him.
"And so you have been down to Leyton, Blair, have you? 'Pon my word, I
didn't think you were so hard hit!"
Lord Blair made a gesture of impatience.
"I told you that I loved her!" he said, almost savagely.
Austin Ambrose shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.
"My dear fellow, you have made the same interesting remark about so
many women!"
"No!" said Blair, vehemently. "I have never spoken about any other
woman as I have spoken to you about her, because I have never felt for
any other woman as I feel for her. Austin, if you could see her! She is
the most beautiful creature you ever saw, and so modest, so sweet, so
refined, so--there, if I were to rave about her from now till midnight
I should not give you an idea of what she is like. Do you know that
picture of Gainsborough, the girl gathering flowers--but there, what is
the use of trying to describe her!"
"There is no use," said Austin, sipping his wine critically and
lighting a cigar.
"No, and to you, especially!" said Lord Blair. "As well talk to a stone
image. _You_ know nothing of love or women."
Austin Ambrose smiled, a peculiar smile.
"Not the least," he said, cheerfully and placidly. "Love and women are
not in my line. Wine and weeds and a good suit of trumps now--but tell
me about her, for I know you are dying to. You saw her?"
"Yes, I saw her," assented Lord Blair, with a long sigh.
"And is that all?" asked Ambrose carelessly, but with a certain quick,
attentive look in the corner of his cold gray eye. "Simply raised your
hat and said 'good-day!'"
"No, by the Lord, no! I spent an hour with her--I think--I don't
know--I lost all count of time, of everything."
"You talked to her? Did you mention that you had lost your senses--I
mean your heart?"
"No chaffing about her, Austin," said Lord Blair, almost sternly, and
with the look of passion that came so readily to his frank eyes. "Yes,
I _did_ tell her that I loved her!" he said, after a moment's pause.
Austin Ambrose looked over Blair's head without a particle of
expression in his eyes.
"And may one ask how she took it?" he said, as carelessly as politeness
would permit, but with his attention acutely on the alert. "What did
she say?"
"I can't tell you all she said. I wouldn't if I could," said Blair, the
color coming to his face, his eyes glowing with a rapt look. "She gave
me no direct answer. I--I have to wait, Austin. Oh, how can I wait! The
hours will seem years. Don't laugh, or I shall get up and kill you," he
broke off blushing, but half in earnest. "Austin, if ever a man loved
with all his heart, and mind, and body, and soul, I love her!"
"Yes," said Austin, slowly, almost gravely, "I think you do."
There was a moment's silence.
"And you propose--what do you propose?" he said, quietly; "do you mean
to marry her?"
Blair sprung to his feet and his face turned white.
"Tut, tut, man," remarked Austin Ambrose, with perfect coolness, "you
don't always marry them!"
Lord Blair sank back into his chair with a look of remorse and shame
that was of more credit to him than any other expression could have
been.
"You hit me fairly, Austin," he said, almost hoarsely. "But--but--all
that has gone forever, I hope! I--I turn over a new leaf from to-day,
please Heaven! Do I mean to marry her? Yes, yes! If she will have me!
If she will stoop, the angel, to pick me out of the mud with her pure
white hand, I mean to go to the earl and say--'My lord, this is my
future wife!'" and he sprung up and began to pace the floor.
Austin Ambrose sipped his wine.
"Hem!" he said, slowly. "I don't think I should do that, if I were in
your place, Blair."
Lord Blair stopped.
"You wouldn't--why not?"
Austin Ambrose was silent for a moment, then he set down his glass
and leant back in his chair, but still looked just over Blair's head,
instead of into his eyes.
"Look here, Blair," he said; "I don't know that I have any right to
intrude my advice, or even my opinion, upon you, but I am, as you know,
your friend."
"I should think so!" exclaimed Lord Blair.
"Yes, I am your friend! I owe you my life! Ever since you picked me out
of the Thames that August morning----"
"Oh, nonsense!" broke in Blair. "Any fellow would have done the same!
You'd have picked me out if I'd had the cramp, and was going down
instead of you."
"Well, we won't talk of it then," said Austin Ambrose; "but, of course,
I don't forget it. When I look in the glass in the morning, I say to
the not particularly handsome gentleman who regards me, 'My friend, but
for Lord Blair's strong arm and good wind, _you_ would not be outside
the world's crust this morning.' Of course, I can't forget it, and as
I owe you my life, I will continue to be a nuisance to you by offering
my advice, and that is, 'Don't go to the earl and tell him you are
going to make his housekeeper's granddaughter his future niece and the
Countess of Ferrers!'"