Faro's Daughter Read online

  `Next you will be wanting to pay him the interest!' said her ladyship.

  `The interest! I had forgotten that! Oh, ought we to pay that too?' said Miss Grantham, appalled.

  Lady Bellingham flung up her hands. `Deb, you are mad! I do not know what has come over you! It was bad enough when you wantonly threw away twenty thousand pounds - and I can scarcely bear to think of that, when I remember all the shocking bills! - but when it comes to refusing to accept the dreadful mortgage, which you have spent a week trying to get from Ravenscar, it goes beyond all bounds! Anyone would have supposed that you would be thankful to get the wretched thing so easily! But not at all! I do believe you would ha, preferred to have wrested it from Ravenscar by main force `Yes, I. would,' replied Miss Grantham earnestly. `Much rather! That would have been my wits against his! This - oh, I wonder you cannot see how impossible it is!’

  'I cannot, and I never shall,' said her aunt. `At least, I hope I shall not, but sometimes I feel as though I were going mad too. I wish you will let me call in the doctor to you! I am sure you have caught a touch of the sun, or contracted some horrid disease which is sending you out of your mind!'

  Before Miss Grantham could repudiate this suggestion there was a hurried tap on the door, followed immediately by the entrance of Miss Laxton into the room, looking as white as her tucker.

  `Good God, child, what is the matter with you?' exclaimed Lady Bellingham.

  Miss Laxton took a wavering step towards Deborah. `Sir James!’ she managed to utter, and crumpled up where she stood, in a dead faint.

  `Oh, heavens, if it is not one thing it is another!' wailed her ladyship, looking round wildly for the vinaigrette. `Untie her laces! Where are those salts? Why is nothing ever where it is wanted? Ring the bell! Oh no, the hartshorn is in that cupboard! I shall go distracted! You ought to burn some feathers under her nose, but there are only the new ostrich plumes in my best hat, and really- However, take them if you like! I am sure I do not grudge them!’

  Deborah, who had dropped on to her knees beside Miss Laxton's inanimate form, raised her head to say: `My dear ma'am, it is quite unnecessary! Have the goodness to bring me a little water, and I will engage for it that she will soon come round! Poor child, what can have happened, I wonder? Did she say Sir James was here?'

  `She said Sir James, but I heard nothing more. If this is his doing, I will step downstairs immediately, and give him a piece of my mind. This may be a gaming-house, but if he thinks to come to it simply to terrify stupid girls he is very much mistaken, and so he will find before he is a day older!’

  Deborah took the glass of water from her, and sprinkled a little on Miss Laxton's face. `Hush, ma'am! She is coming to herself! There, my dear! You are better now, are you not?'

  Phoebe's eyes opened, and stared blankly up into Miss Grantham's face for a bewildered moment. Then, as realization came, she shuddered convulsively, and clutched at Miss Grantham's arm. `Oh, don't let him come in!’

  `No one shall come in whom you don't wish to see, r dear,' replied Miss Grantham calmly. `Do not agitate yours so! You are quite safe! Come, I want you to drink this hat horn-and-water, and then you will be better!’

  Miss Laxton swallowed the mixture obediently, and burst into tears. Lady Bellingham said: `For heaven's sake, child don't start crying! If Sir James is downstairs, I will very so send him about his business! His mother was a very vulgar low kind of a woman, so that I am sure one cannot be surprise at anything!'

  Miss Grantham helped Phoebe to rise from the floor, a put her into a large armchair. `Is he downstairs, Phoebe?'

  'No! Oh, no, I think not! He walked away. He will have gone to my father. I am utterly undone! What shall I d Where can I go ? I dare not stay here another minute!’

  Lady Bellingham sighed, and shook her head. `I declare cannot make head or tail of what she means! I dare say shi going mad too, if we only knew, and who shall wonder at.’

  Phoebe clasped Miss Grantham's hand feebly, and said t: indeed she was not mad. `It was my fault. It was all my fault I never thought - I went into the front saloon, to watch Adrian, and I didn't think that anyone would see me. I pulled back the blinds, to see better, and he was there!’

  `Who was there? Who was where?' demanded Ls Bellingham.

  `Sir James, in the Square, walking by the house in the direction of St James's Street

  !’

  'I daresay he was on his way to White's,' said her ladyship.

  `But he saw me! I know he saw me, and knew me too! I not immediately perceive him, and when I did look toward him he was standing quite still, staring up at me! I thought I should have died of fright! I ran away from the window came directly in search of you, Deb! Oh, what is to be doing. I won't go back, I won't, but I know Papa will come to fetch me, and Mama too, very likely!’

  'Well, if Augusta Laxton comes into this house I shall know what to do!' said Lady Bellingham, with unwonted pugnaciously. `I do not wish to speak ill of your Mama, Phoebe, but she is odious, mercenary, cheating wretch! She used to play faro at my parties, when we lived in the smaller house, and at times did I catch her cocking her card! Let her attempt to find her way in here, that is all I have to say!'

  Miss Laxton, however, refused to be comforted. She quite sure that she would be wrested from her friends' protection, and compelled to marry Sir James Filey. No representations which Miss Grantham could make of the impossibility of her being compelled to marry anyone bore any weight with her; she seemed to be determined to give herself up for lost. It was with considerable relief that Miss Grantham learned, a few minutes later, that Lord Mablethorpe was belowstairs.

  `Desire him to come up!’ she said. `You will not object to his coming into your dressing-room, aunt?'

  `Oh no, let him come!’ said her ladyship, quite exhausted by her efforts to reassure Phoebe. `I do not care who comes, if only they can put some sense into this stupid girl's head! I will say this for you, Deb: you may lock people up in the cellar, and fling thousands of pounds in their faces as though it was mud, but you don't cry! Nothing could be more tiresome, when all is said and done! If that is you at the door, Mablethorpe, come in this instant, and do something!’

  Lord Mablethorpe came in, looking a little shy, and rather startled. He began to apologize for intruding upon Lady Bellingham in her dressing-room, but stopped short at the sight of Miss Laxton, and started forward, exclaiming `Good God, what is the matter?'

  Miss Laxton, who had been lying with her eyes closed, apparently on the verge of yet another swoon, revived sufficiently to sit up, and to cast herself into his lordship's arms. Miss Grantham then abandoned her own attempts to bring relief to her suffering protegee, and stood back to see what success his lordship's efforts might meet with.

  `What a fool that woman is never to have told her daughter that nothing can be more fatal than to weep all down a man's waistcoat!' whispered Lady Bellingham, quite exasperated. `They can't bear it, and I'm sure I don't wonder!'

  But Lord Mablethorpe did not seem to mind being wept over. Miss Grantham could not but admire his handling of a situation which she frankly acknowledged to be beyond her power to mend. In a remarkably short time, Miss Laxton had stopped crying, and was even able to smile tremulously up at his lordship, and to beg his pardon for having been such a goose. Now that he had come, she said, she knew that she would be safe.

  Lord Mablethorpe then demanded to be told the cause of her distress. When it had been explained to him, once (unintelligibly) by Phoebe, and once by Deborah, his brows drew together across the bridge of his beautiful nose, and he said with more decision than Deborah had ever before heard in his voice: `That settles it, then!'

  Miss Laxton heaved a huge sigh, and tucked her hand in his `I knew you would know what to do!'

  `Well, it's to be hoped he does,' said Lady Bellingham, wit] some asperity. `If I had known that all you wanted was to hear someone say that settles it, I would have said it myself, for I an sure it is easy enough to say, and doesn't sig
nify in the least l

  `I do know what to do,' said his lordship, laying Phoebe back against the sofa-cushions, and rising to his feet.

  `Don't leave me!' implored Phoebe.

  He smiled warmly down at her. `I am never going to leave you again, my sweet.'

  `You can't come and stay here!’ interpolated Lady Belling ham. `I should be very pleased to have you, of course, but now that Kit is home, we have no room.'

  `I don't mean to stay here, ma'am. I am going to take Phoebe to her aunt in Wales. Deb, I shall need you too!'

  Miss Grantham could not help laughing at his air of authority. `The devil you will! What do you mean to do, you absurd creature?'

  `I mean to marry Phoebe out of hand, if her aunt will permit. I shall take her to Wales, lay the whole case before her aunt and-'

  `And what if her aunt does not permit? I suppose you will abide by her decision?'

  He grinned. `No, I shan't. But I hope she may give her countenance to the marriage. If the worst comes to the worst I shall have a special licence with me, and we shall be married. But these runaway matches are not at all the thing, and I should prefer to have the marriage performed with the greatest possible degree of propriety, to save Phoebe the embarrassment of any scandal.'

  `Quite right!' said Lady Bellingham approvingly. `I never thought you had so much sense, Adrian! It will answer very well. You will be able to put a notice in the Morning Post, saying that Phoebe was married from the house of her aunt, and although it may seem a trifle odd, it will be much better than to have it known that it was a horrid clandestine affair. Where does your aunt live, my dear?'

  Miss Laxton, on whom these arbitrary plans for her future had acted like a strong tonic, sat up, and replied that her aunt was a widow, and lived at Welshpool, in Montgomery. She added that she knew her aunt would approve of her marriage to Adrian.

  `That means the Holyhead road,' said his lordship. `I shall inform my mother that I am going into the country for a few days' shooting, with some friends. I often do so: it will occasion not the least remark! Deb, I have no right to expect it of you but I do beg that you will go with Phoebe in the chaise, which I shall hire! I mean to ride beside you, of course.'

  `What, am I to go with you to play propriety?' asked Miss Grantham, amused. `And pray what is to become of me at the journey's end?'

  `I shall bring you safely back to town,' promised his lordship. `I have thought it all out. Once the knot is tied, I shall leave Phoebe in her aunt's care, and return to London to inform her parents and my own mother of the event. When that is done, and they are ready to receive Phoebe with the attention and the courtesy which is due to my wife, I shall fetch her to town again. After that, I dare say we shall go down to Mablethorpe.'

  `I see that you have it all planned,' said Miss Grantham admiringly. `But I cannot perceive the least use in my going upon your bridal trip.'

  But Miss Laxton at once caught her hand, and begged her not to desert her; and his lordship said, with a touch of austerity, that her presence was necessary to remove from the journey any flavour of elopement. Lady Bellingham, possibly reflecting that the excitement of the adventure might drive the thought of the mortgage out of her niece's head, gave it as her opinion that Deborah ought certainly to go. Miss Grantham submitted, therefore, and promised to have herself and her proteg6e in readiness to set forward on the journey in an hour's time. Lord Mablethorpe then left the house, to make his own arrangements. He would, he said, have a post-chaise at the door within the hour. The two ladies were to drive away in it, and he engaged himself to overtake them a few miles out of London.

  In all the bustle of preparation, Miss Grantham had time only to scribble a hasty note to Mr Ravenscar, in which she informed him that she had received his very obliging communication, and would be grateful for an opportunity of meeting him upon her return from the country, further to discuss the matter. She added that she expected to be in London again within a few days and gave the letter to Silas, with instructions to deliver it by hand at once.

  Miss Laxton spent the hour before her departure in an agony of dread, but the post-chaise-and-four was at the door before the arrival of an avenging parent could frustrate all Lord Mablethorpe's schemes. Lady Bellingham bade farewell to travellers, announcing herself to be perfectly able to fob off Augusta Laxton, and a dozen like her; the two ladies climb into the chaise; the post-boys cracked their whips; the equipage lurched forward over the cobbles; and Miss Laxton w able to let her breath go at last.

  CHAPTER 15

  Lady Bellingham was not called upon to sustain a visit from Lady Laxton, but not long after the chaise had drive away from St James's Square

  , Lord Laxton arrived at the house, and sent in his card.

  Lady Bellingham received him in the Yellow Saloon, and was shrewd enough to perceive at the first glance that he was extremely ill-at-ease. The truth was that his lordship believed Sir James Filey to have been mistaken in thinking he had seen Phoebe at one of the windows in Lady Bellingham's house and much resented having been sent to inquire into the matter. He was positive that his daughter was quite unacquainted with her ladyship, so that when Lady Bellingham received tentative questions with a look of the blankest bewilderment he was not at all surprised, but reflected that it was just Augusta to have driven him out on a fool's errand. Lady Bellingham said that she had thought for some time that James was drinking too heavily. She supposed that he m have caught sight of her niece's school-friend, Miss Smith who had certainly been staying in the house, as his lords might verify for himself, if he cared to question the servants. This was said with a sarcastic inflexion which embarrassed lordship. He said that he had no wish to question the servants and was sure that a mistake had been made. Lady Bellingham then enjoyed herself very much by asking him a great many awkward questions about his daughter's disappearance, so that he was glad to make his escape as soon as he could. He was allowed to depart, however, without being asked how his wife did, and whether her luck at cards continued to hold good; and as he was well aware of the circumstances which had led up to Lady Laxton's ceasing to receive cards of invitation to Lady Bellingham's card-parties, he finally left the house in considerable disorder. Augusta, he decided, might do what she pleased, but for his part he was not going to be sent on any, more such errands. His own belief was that his daughter had fled to her aunt in Wales, which was an exceedingly awkward business, since he supposed he would be obliged to go there to fetch the girl away. As this would entail meeting his redoubtable sister, and enduring the lightning of her extremely forked tongue, it was not a prospect to which he looked forward with any pleasure.

  Lady Bellingham's next visitor was Lucius Kennet, who strolled in to see her at about noon. He had come to tell her that he had an engagement that evening, and so would not be able to deal for her at the faro-table, as he usually did. When he heard of Deborah's departure into Wales with Phoebe and Lord Mablethorpe, he was at first amused, and then as exasperated as a man of his easy-going temperament could be.

  `So she's going to marry the young sprig to the Laxton chit, is she?' he said. `I'm thinking that when Ravenscar gets to hear of this the game will be up, ma'am.'

  `Oh, if I had not forgot to tell you!' exclaimed her ladyship. 'Ravenscar has given the mortgage and the bills to her! I had not thought to find him so complaisant!'

  He pursed up his lips. `That's the way it is, is it? I'd a strong notion our friend was a deal more taken up with Deb's charms than she guessed.'

  Lady Bellingham sighed. `I own, I thought the same, and I daresay it is quite true. But it is useless to talk to Deb, Lucius! She has taken such a dislike to the man that nothing will overcome it!’

  'It was in me mind, ma'am, that she was more than half in love with the fellow.'

  `Oh no, nothing of the kind!’ said her ladyship. `She can't abide him. I can vouch for that! And if you are thinking that he might offer for her, I believe he is too proud. If anything of that nature has entered his head, you
may depend upon it, it is not marriage he means!'

  He agreed with this, and sat for a few moments, idly casting his dice on to the table at his elbow. After a frowning pause, he raised his eyes to her ladyship's face, and said bluntly: `How do your accounts stand, ma'am?'

  She shuddered. `Don't ask me that! Of course, it is a relief to get that mortgage into my hands, but when I think of the twenty thousand pounds he offered to give Deb, I declare I could weep!’

  'I was thinking much the same meself,' he said. `This is a bird that lays golden eggs, ma'am, and it would be a pity, so it would, to let it slip through our fingers before we have one of those same eggs.,

  'I see no need for you to talk in that vulgar way, Lucius,' said her ladyship, with dignity. `But in the main I agree with what you say. Only Deb is so proud she will not take a penny from anyone, so you may as well stop thinking of that twenty thousand.'

  He grinned. `And has your ladyship stopped thinking of it?' he inquired.

  `No one;' said her ladyship severely, `can stop thinking of such a sum all in a trice, but I assure you it does not creep into my mind now above once or twice in a day.'

  `If I could lay my hands on it, it's not meself that would be forgetting an old friend,' he observed, watching the fall of his dice.

  `I am sure you would not,' replied her ladyship, gratified by this kind thought, `and if I had such a sum I would not forget you. But Deb is determined not to touch a penny of Ravenscar's money, so there is nothing for us to do but to put it out of our minds.'

  `Faith, I'm disappointed in the darlin'!’ said Mr Kennet. `I'm thinking I'll be taking a hand in the game meself.'

  `I do not see what you can do,' objected Lady Bellingham. `As soon as he knows that Mablethorpe is safely tied to Phoebe Laxton, there will no longer be the least reason why he should give us any money at all.'

  `Well,' drawled Kennet, rising to his feet, and pocketing his dice, 'Mablethorpe is not the only weapon to our hands, after all. I'll be bidding you a very good day, ma'am.'