The Marquis glanced at the note which was handed to him at luncheon
time, frowned slightly and handed it across to Letitia.
"What have you people been doing to Thain?" he asked a little
irritably. "He doesn't want to come to dinner."
The Duchess and Sylvia, who had just arrived on her projected visit,
made no attempt to conceal their disappointment. Letitia picked, up
the note and read it indifferently.
"I am very sorry, aunt," she said. "I gave him all the notice I could."
"There is perhaps some misunderstanding," the Marquis remarked. "In
any case, he would not know that you were here for so short a time,
Caroline. After luncheon I will walk across and see him."
"I will go with you," the Duchess decided. "I should like to see
Broomleys again. As a matter of fact, I meant to go there this
morning, but I found one call enough for me."
They took their coffee in the garden. Letitia followed her father to a
rose bush which he had crossed the lawn to examine.
"Dad," she asked, passing her hand through his arm, "have you had any
good news?"
He shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because you look so much better. I think that motoring must agree
with you."
He patted her hand.
"I rather enjoyed the drive," he admitted. "As a matter of fact,
perhaps I am better," he went on.
"You haven't any good news about the shares, I suppose?" she asked
hesitatingly.
For a moment he was grave.
"I have no news at all," he confessed, "or rather what news I have is
not good. I put an enquiry through an independent firm of stockbrokers
with whom I have had some transactions; and their reply coincided with
the information already afforded to me."
Letitia glanced across the park, and her face darkened.
"Has it ever struck you," she asked, "that there is something peculiar
about Mr. Thain in his attitude towards us--as a family, I mean?"
The Marquis shook his head.
"On the contrary," he replied, "I have always considered his deportment
unimpeachable."
Letitia hesitated, pulled a rose to pieces and turned back with her
father towards where the Duchess was reclining in a wicker chair.
"I dare say it's my fancy. Why don't you all go," she suggested, "and
take Mr. Thain by storm? He can scarcely resist you, aunt, and Sylvia."
"Why don't you come yourself?" the Duchess asked.
"My duty lies here," Letitia observed, with a little smile towards
Grantham, who had just strolled up with Sylvia.
The Duchess rose to her feet.
"Dear me, yes!" she acquiesced. "You two had better go off and have a
long country walk. If I sit for long after luncheon, I always go to
sleep; so come along, Reginald, we'll beard the lion in his den."
The Marquis glanced towards Sylvia, but she shook her head.
"I must see after my unpacking," she said, "but I should very much like
Mr. Thain to come. Do try to persuade him."
The Duchess and her brother strolled up the garden and out of the
postern gate into the park.
"That's a terrible old man of yours, Reginald," the former observed,
glancing over her shoulder. "I never came across such a person off the
boards at Drury Lane."
"He is an infernal nuisance," the Marquis grumbled. "It seems absurd,
but he gets on my nerves. Day by day, there he sits, wet or fine. You
can't see his lips move, but you can always feel sure that he is
hunting up choice bits of damnation out of the Old Testament and
hurling them across at me."
"I have come to the conclusion," his sister decided, "that he is out of
his mind. An ignorant man who lives with one idea all his life is apt
to lose his reason. He has never attempted any violence, has he?"
"Never," the Marquis replied, "but since you have mentioned it,
Caroline, I always have a queer sensation when I am that side of the
house. It is just about the distance to be picked off nicely with a
rifle. I can't think why he doesn't do it--why he contents himself
with abuse."
"I am going to consult Mr. Thain about him," his companion said. "A
man of his robust common sense is much more likely to influence a
lunatic like Vont than you or I.--So this is where our millionaire
hermit is hidden," she went on, as they reached the gate. "Dear me,
the place has changed!"
"It will soon be in order again," the Marquis observed. "Thain has a
dozen men at work in the grounds, and he is having the rooms done up,
one by one. He lives in the library, I think, and the bedroom over it."
They passed through the plantation and into the gardens. Thain was
there, talking to one of the workmen. He came to meet them with a
somewhat forced smile of welcome upon his lips.
"This is very unexpected," he declared, as he shook hands. "I should
have called upon you this afternoon, Duchess."
"I should think so!" she replied severely. "Will you be so good as to
tell me at once what you mean by refusing my niece's invitation to
dine?"
He hesitated for a moment, then he smiled. There was something very
attractive about his visitor's frank directness of speech and manner.
"I refused," he admitted, glancing around to where the Marquis was
engaged in conversation with a gardener, "because I didn't want to
come."
"But I am there, you stupid person!" she reminded him. "You are
invited to dine with me! I know you don't get on with Lady Letitia,
and I know you don't like large parties, but there are only half a
dozen of us there, and I promise you my whole protection. Show me
something at once. I want to talk to you. Those Dorothy Perkins roses
will do, at the other end of the lawn."
He walked in silence by her side. She waited until they were well out
of earshot.
"David Thain," she said, "have I shown an interest in you or have I
not?"
"You have been extraordinarily kind," he confessed.
"And in return," she continued, "you have decided to avoid me. I won't
have it. Are you afraid that I might want you to make love to me?"
He shook his head.
"I am sure you wouldn't find that amusing," he declared. "In the
society of your sex I generally behave pretty well as your brother
would do if he were dumped down in an office in Wall Street."
"I honestly believe that you are diffident," she admitted. "I never
met a millionaire before who was, and at first I thought it was a pose
with you. Perhaps I was mistaken. You really don't think, then, that
you have any attraction apart from your millions?"
"I'm quite sure that I haven't," he answered bitterly.
"A love affair!" she exclaimed, looking into his face scrutinisingly.
"And I knew nothing of it!--I, your sponsor, your lady confessor,
your--well, heaven knows what I might not be if you would only behave
decently! A love affair, indeed! That little yellow-haired chit, I
suppose, who is down here raving about you all the time--Sylvia
What's-her-name?"
He smiled.
"I know very little of Miss Sylvia Laycey," he said, "beyond the fact
that she seems very charming."
"I suppose you ought to marry," she continued regretfully. "It seems a
pity, but they'll never leave you alone till you do. What is your
type, then? Sylvia Laycey is much too young for you. I suppose you
know that."
"I don't think I have one," he answered.
"That's because I am married, of course," she went on. "If you were a
sensible man, you would settle down to adore me and not think of
anybody else at all. But you won't do it. You'll want to buy palaces
and yachts and town houses and theatres, like all the rest of the
superfluously rich, and you'll want a musical comedy star to wear your
jewels, and a wife to entertain your friends."
"Well, you must admit that I haven't been in a hurry about any of these
things yet," he observed.
She looked at him keenly.
"Look here, my young friend," she said, "you haven't made the one
mistake I warned you against, have you? You haven't fallen in love
with Letitia?"
He laughed almost brutally.
"I am not quite such a fool as that," he assured her.
"Well, I should hope not," she enjoined severely. "Besides, as a
matter of fact, Letitia is engaged. Her young man is staying at
Mandeleys now. Just answer me one question, David--why did you refuse
that invitation to dinner?"
"Because I didn't feel like coming," he answered. "I thought it would
probably be a large party, most of them neighbours, and every one would
have to make an effort to entertain me because I am a stranger, and
don't know their ways or anything about them."
"There you are again!" she exclaimed. "Just as sensitive as you can
be, for all your millions! You'll come, David--please?"
"Of course I will, if you ask me like that," he assented.
She turned to her brother, who was approaching.
"Success!" she announced. "Mr. Thain has promised to dine. He refused
under a misapprehension."
"We are delighted," the Marquis said. "At a quarter past eight, Mr.
Thain."