第24章

"I said just now I didn't want to know anything about the affair;but I will confess that I am curious to learn whether you propose to marry Miss Bessie Alden."On this point Lord Lambeth gave his interlocutor no immediate satisfaction;he was musing, with a frown. "By Jove," he said, "they go rather too far.

They SHALL find me dangerous--I promise them."Percy Beaumont began to laugh. "You don't redeem your promises.

You said the other day you would make your mother call."Lord Lambeth continued to meditate. "I asked her to call,"he said simply.

"And she declined?"

"Yes; but she shall do it yet."

"Upon my word," said Percy Beaumont, "if she gets much more frightened I believe she will." Lord Lambeth looked at him, and he went on.

"She will go to the girl herself."

"How do you mean she will go to her?"

"She will beg her off, or she will bribe her. She will take strong measures."Lord Lambeth turned away in silence, and his companion watched him take twenty steps and then slowly return.

"I have invited Mrs. Westgate and Miss Alden to Branches,"he said, "and this evening I shall name a day.""And shall you invite your mother and your sisters to meet them?""Explicitly!"

"That will set the duchess off," said Percy Beaumont.

"I suspect she will come."

"She may do as she pleases."

Beaumont looked at Lord Lambeth. "You do really propose to marry the little sister, then?""I like the way you talk about it!" cried the young man.

"She won't gobble me down; don't be afraid.""She won't leave you on your knees," said Percy Beaumont.

"What IS the inducement?"

"You talk about proposing: wait till I HAVE proposed,"Lord Lambeth went on.

"That's right, my dear fellow; think about it," said Percy Beaumont.

"She's a charming girl," pursued his lordship.

"Of course she's a charming girl. I don't know a girl more charming, intrinsically. But there are other charming girls nearer home.""I like her spirit," observed Lord Lambeth, almost as if he were trying to torment his cousin.

"What's the peculiarity of her spirit?"

"She's not afraid, and she says things out, and she thinks herself as good as anyone. She is the only girl I have ever seen that was not dying to marry me.""How do you know that, if you haven't asked her?""I don't know how; but I know it."

"I am sure she asked me questions enough about your property and your titles," said Beaumont.

"She has asked me questions, too; no end of them," Lord Lambeth admitted.

"But she asked for information, don't you know.""Information? Aye, I'll warrant she wanted it. Depend upon it that she is dying to marry you just as much and just as little as all the rest of them.""I shouldn't like her to refuse me--I shouldn't like that.""If the thing would be so disagreeable, then, both to you and to her, in Heaven's name leave it alone," said Percy Beaumont.

Mrs. Westgate, on her side, had plenty to say to her sister about the rarity of Mr. Beaumont's visits and the nonappearance of the Duchess of Bayswater.

She professed, however, to derive more satisfaction from this latter circumstance than she could have done from the most lavish attentions on the part of this great lady. "It is most marked," she said--"most marked.

It is a delicious proof that we have made them miserable. The day we dined with Lord Lambeth I was really sorry for the poor fellow."It will have been gathered that the entertainment offered by Lord Lambeth to his American friends had not been graced by the presence of his anxious mother. He had invited several choice spirits to meet them;but the ladies of his immediate family were to Mrs. Westgate's sense--a sense possibly morbidly acute--conspicuous by their absence.

"I don't want to express myself in a manner that you dislike,"said Bessie Alden; "but I don't know why you should have so many theories about Lord Lambeth's poor mother. You know a great many young men in New York without knowing their mothers."Mrs. Westgate looked at her sister and then turned away.

"My dear Bessie, you are superb!" she said.

"One thing is certain," the young girl continued.

"If I believed I were a cause of annoyance--however unwitting--to Lord Lambeth's family, I should insist--""Insist upon my leaving England," said Mrs. Westgate.

"No, not that. I want to go to the National Gallery again;I want to see Stratford-on-Avon and Canterbury Cathedral.

But I should insist upon his coming to see us no more.""That would be very modest and very pretty of you; but you wouldn't do it now.""Why do you say 'now'?" asked Bessie Alden. "Have I ceased to be modest?""You care for him too much. A month ago, when you said you didn't, I believe it was quite true. But at present, my dear child," said Mrs. Westgate, "you wouldn't find it quite so simple a matter never to see Lord Lambeth again.

I have seen it coming on."

"You are mistaken," said Bessie. "You don't understand.""My dear child, don't be perverse," rejoined her sister.

"I know him better, certainly, if you mean that," said Bessie.

"And I like him very much. But I don't like him enough to make trouble for him with his family. However, I don't believe in that.""I like the way you say 'however,'" Mrs. Westgate exclaimed.

"Come; you would not marry him?"

"Oh, no," said the young girl.

Mrs. Westgate for a moment seemed vexed. "Why not, pray?" she demanded.

"Because I don't care to," said Bessie Alden.

The morning after Lord Lambeth had had, with Percy Beaumont, that exchange of ideas which has just been narrated, the ladies at Jones's Hotel received from his lordship a written invitation to pay their projected visit to Branches Castle on the following Tuesday.

"I think I have made up a very pleasant party," the young nobleman said.

"Several people whom you know, and my mother and sisters, who have so long been regrettably prevented from making your acquaintance."Bessie Alden lost no time in calling her sister's attention to the injustice she had done the Duchess of Bayswater, whose hostility was now proved to be a vain illusion.

"Wait till you see if she comes," said Mrs. Westgate.