He laughed. “Harriet, do pray buy it for her, and set it to my account! Perhaps if she had her purple gown—”
“Gilly, I could not!” said Harriet earnestly. “You have no idea how unsuitable it would be! It is of the brightest purple satin, with Spanish sleeves slashed with rows of gold beads, and a demi-train, and the bosom cut by far too low! Dear Gilly, I would do anything for you, but only conceive of a young girl’s wearing such a gown! Even Grandmama would be shocked!”
He was awed by this description of the gown’s magnificence, and could not but acknowledge the justice of Harriet’s objection to it. To insist on her lending her countenance to a young female clad in such startling raiment would, he realized, be unreasonable. He acquiesced therefore in her decision, and held the door open for her to pass from the room.
The Dowager watched him critically, and said, as he came back into the room: “Well, Sale, I’m sure I don’t know what you uncle will have to say to your raking, but it has done you a great deal of good, and my granddaughter too! I’ve no doubt you’ve been deceiving her monstrously, but the dullest dog alive is ever your virtuous young man! Which I thought you were, I own. However, I see there’s more of your grandfather in you than I knew. Lord, what a dashing blade he was, to be sure! He can’t have been a day older than you when he ran off with Lyndhurst’s wife. They hushed it up, of course, but I remember what a scandal it was at the time! They say it cost his father—your great-grandfather, you know—a pretty penny to get him out of such an entanglement, and I daresay it did. Then he married one of the Ingatestone gals: a sickly creature, she was, always in the megrims! Lord Guiseley was her bel ami for years. They used to say that the second daughter—your aunt Sarah, I mean—was none of Sale’s, but I never set any store by it myself: she hadn’t the spirit of a hen! But your grandfather used to be the biggest rake in town. All the Mamas used to forbid us to dance with him at the assemblies, for he never kept the line, and there was no sense in encouraging his advances once he was tied up in marriage, you know.”
The Duke received these engaging reminiscences of his progenitors without protest, merely smiling at the old lady, and murmuring that he hoped no careful parent would feel compelled to warn her daughter against him; but Gideon instantly demanded to be told more about Aunt Sarah, whom he cordially disliked. The Dowager was nothing loth, and was in the middle of a highly libellous story when Harriet came back into the room with Belinda.
Belinda, becomingly attired in one of Harriet’s cambric gowns, bestowed a ravishing smile upon Gideon, favouring him with one of her wide, speculative stares. She seemed genuinely pleased to see the Duke, but she was looking a little wistful, and her lovely mouth drooped at the corners.
Whether she was pining for Mr. Mudgley, or for the purple gown, he was unable to discover, since her thoughts seemed to he equally divided between them. She was plainly in awe of Lady Ampleforth, and was minding her manners so painstakingly that she spoke only in a subdued voice, and sat on the extreme edge of a chair, with her feet together, and her hands folded in her lap. He guessed that, in spite of Harriet’s kindness, her surroundings were oppressive to her. She was terrified of doing something wrong. He felt more sorry for her than ever, and redoubled his determination to find her swain for her.
But she was of very little assistance to him. She had only once visited Mr. Mudgley’s farm, on a day when Mrs. Pilling had gone to Wells to see her sister; and although she was able to describe in great detail the big kitchen there, the dear little chicks in the yard, and a calf which had licked her fingers, she had no idea how far the farm lay from Bath, or in which direction. But there had been a stream, with primroses growing beside it, and Mr. Mudgley had very obligingly stopped to let her get down from the gig to pick a great bunch of them.
The Duke felt defeated, and for a moment said nothing. Belinda sighed. “Perhaps he went away, like Maggie, and I shall never see him any more,” she said.
He did not think this was likely, and shook his head. Belinda sighed again. “I daresay he is married now, because he was very handsome, and it was such a nice house, with a garden, and beautiful red curtains in the parlour. I am very unhappy.”
Both he and Harriet said what they could to console her, but she seemed to have sunk into a mood of gentle resignation. She said simply: “I wish I was not a foundling! It is very hard, you know, because no one cares what becomes of one, and one has nowhere to go, and when I thought that Uncle Swithin would make me comfortable I was quite taken-in. And so it is always!”
This sad little speech brought the tears to Harriet’s eyes, and she took one of Belinda’s hands in hers, and clasped it, saying: “No, no, do not say so! The Duke and I will always stand your friends, I promise!”
“Yes, but it is not the same,” said Belinda unanswerably.
The Duke could only reiterate his determination to find Mr. Mudgley. Belinda smiled gratefully at him, but without conviction, and, catching Gideon’s eye, he rose to take his leave.
“Well,” said Gideon, as they walked towards Bridge Street together, “she is certainly a nonpareil, Adolphus, and I think you are wasting your time. She is destined to become a Covent Garden nun.”
The Duke compressed his lips, returning no answer. Captain Ware glanced quizzically down at him. “I have offended you, Adolphus?”
“No. I expected you to say something of the sort. You have never the least sympathy for those born in less easy circumstances than yourself—witness your contempt of Matt!”
Captain Ware blinked. “Phew! What can I do to atone?”
“Find Mudgley for me!” said the Duke tartly.
“Yes, your Grace!” said Captain Ware, in servile accents.
This made the Duke laugh. He slid a hand in his cousin’s arm, pressing it slightly, and saying: “I have learnt some few things in this week that I never knew before, you see, Gideon. Did you ever think how it would be to be without a single relative in the world?”
“I did not, I own. I thought you had done so, however, and envied those in that happy state.”
“I have discovered my mistake,” replied the Duke.
Gideon could not help smiling at this. He said: “I hope you will still think so when my father arrives in Bath!”
This event took place that evening, just as Nettlebed had brought sherry and Madeira into the private parlour, drawn the blinds, and made up the fire. The door was suddenly opened, andLord Lionel stalked into the room, before the trembling waiter had had time to announce him.
His lordship, having passed through every stage of anxiety, was suffering from the inevitable reaction, and looked to be in anything but a conciliatory mood. His eagle glance swept past his son and became fixed upon the Duke. “Ha!” he ejaculated explosively. “So you have seen fit to inform us of your whereabouts, Sale! Extremely obliging of you! And now perhaps you will have the goodness to explain the meaning of this caper?”
The Duke, rising quickly from his seat by the fire, fancied that he could detect fresh lines on his uncle’s face. He went forward, holding out his hands, and saying: “Dear sir, I am so very glad to see you! Forgive me!”
Lord Lionel champed upon an invisible bit. With all the air of a man constrained against his will, he took the outstretched hands, and gripped them. “I want none of your cajolery, Sale!” he announced, his penetrating gaze searching the Duke’s face. “I do not know what the devil you mean by behaving in this way. I am very angry with you, very angry, indeed! How dared you, sir?”
The Duke smiled up at him. “Indeed, I don’t know how I dared! But I did not mean the fools to worry you with my capers!”
“Let me tell you that I have better things to do than to worry over your conduct!” said his lordship inaccurately. “Are you quite well, Gilly? Yes, I see that you are. It would have served you right if I had found you laid down on your bed with one of your sickly turns, let me tell you! Where have you been, and what the devil are you doing in this place? Let me have a plain answer, if you please!”