Mr Montaigne allowed a couple of days to elapse before he called again
in Saint James's, and then, serious man as he was, he swore, for the
shutters were closed: the family was out of town.
It was no unusual time for anyone to go, for, as he stood there
hesitating on the step, a slatternly-looking girl was making the streets
ring with her minor-pitched cry of "Sixteen branches a penny--new
lavender; sixteen branches a penny." It was well on in August, and
fashionable London was taking wing.
"Clever woman!" thought Montaigne: "this is her move; but I can mate her
when I please."
He rang, and a woman-servant answered the bell.
"His lordship is out of town," the woman said.
"At his country seat?" said Montaigne at haphazard.
"Oh dear no, sir! his lordship has taken my lady and Miss Allerton on
the Continong, and they are not coming back for some time. Mr Harvey,
his lordship's agent, will send on all letters."
"Thank you. I am very much obliged," said Montaigne with his blandest
smile; and he raised his hat and went away smiling, cursing Marie in his
heart.
"`All comes to the man who waits,'" he thought.
Volume 3, Chapter XI.