The Daltons Volume I Part 44

"There, you have it all, now," said Haggerstone, as he finished writing; "their 'family, fortune, flaws, and frailties' 'what they did, and where they did it' observing accuracy as to Christian names, and as many dates as possible."

"I'll do it," said Fogla.s.s, as he read over the "instruction."

"We want it soon, too," said Mrs. Ricketts. "Tell him we shall need the information at once."

"This with speed," wrote Haggerstone at the foot of the memorandum.

Fogla.s.s bowed a deep a.s.sent.

"How like his grandfather!" said Mrs. Ricketts, in ecstasy.

"I never knew he had one," whispered Haggerstone to the Pole. "His father was a coachmaker in Long Acre."

"Is he not thought very like them?" asked Mrs. Ricketts, with a sidelong glance of admiration at the auburn peruke.

"I've heard that the wig is authentic, madam."

"He has so much of that regal urbanity in his manner."

"If he is not the first gentleman of England," muttered Haggerstone to himself, "he is the first one in his own family, at least."

"By the way," said Mrs. Ricketts, hastily, "let him inquire into that affair of Lord Norwood."

"No necessity, madam. The affair is in 'Bell's Life,' with the significant question, 'Where is he?' But he can learn the particulars, at all events." And he made a note in the book.

"How dreadful all this, and how sad to think Florence should be the resort of such people!"

"If it were not for rapparees and refugees, madam, house-rent would be very inexpensive," said the Colonel, in a subdued voice; while, turning to the Pole, he added, "and if respectability is to be always a caricature, I'd as soon have its opposite. I suppose you do not admit the Viscount, madam?"

"He has not ventured to present himself," said Mrs. Ricketts, proudly.

"I hope that there is, at least, one sanctuary where virtue can live unmolested." And, as she spoke, she looked over at Martha, who was working away patiently; but whether happy in the exclusive tariff aforesaid, or somewhat tired of "protection," we are unable to say.

"What has he do?" asked the Count.

"He has done the 'ring' all round, I believe," said Haggerstone, chuckling at a joke which he alone could appreciate.

"Dey do talk of play in England!" said the Pole, contemptuously. "Dey never do play high, wit there leetle how do you call 'em? bets, of tree, four guinea, at ecarte. But in Polen we have two, tree, five tousand crowns on each card. Dere, crack! you lose a fortune, or I do win one!

One evening at Garowidsky's I do lose one estate of seventeen million florins, but I no care noting for all dat! I was ver rich, wit my palaces and de mayorat how you call dat?"

Before this question could be answered, the servant threw open the double door of the salon, and announced, "Milordo Norwood!" A sh.e.l.l might have burst in the apartment and not created much more confusion.

Mrs. Ricketts gave a look at Martha, as though to a.s.sure herself that she was in safety. Poor Martha's own fingers trembled as she bent over her frame. Haggerstone b.u.t.toned up his coat and arranged his cravat with the air of a man so consummate a tactician that he could actually roll himself in pitch and yet never catch the odor; while Purvis, whose dread of a duel list exceeded his fear of a mad dog, ensconced himself behind a stand of geraniums, where he resolved to live in a state of retirement until the terrible Viscount had withdrawn. As for the Count, a preparatory touch at his moustache, and a slight arrangement of his hair, sufficed him to meet anything; and as these were the ordinary details of his daily toilet, he performed them with a rapidity quite instinctive.

To present oneself in a room where one's appearance is unacceptable is, perhaps, no slight test of tact, manner, and effrontery; to be actually indifferent to the feelings around is to be insensible to the danger; to see the peril, and yet appear not to notice it, const.i.tutes the true line of action. Lord Norwood was perfect in this piece of performance, and there was neither exaggerated cordiality nor any semblance of constraint in his manner as he advanced to Mrs. Ricketts, and taking her hand, pressed it respectfully to his lips.

"This salutation," said he, gayly, "is a commission from Lord Kennycroft, your old and constant admirer. It was his last word as we parted: 'Kiss Mrs. Ricketts's hand for me, and say I am faithful as ever.'"

"Poor dear Lord! General, here is Lord Norwood come to see us."

"How good of him how very kind! Just arrived from the East, my Lord?"

said he, shaking Fogla.s.s by the hand in mistake.

"No, sir; from Malta." He wouldn't say England, for reasons. "Miss Ricketts, I am most happy to see you and still occupied with the fine arts? Haggy, how d'ye do? Really it seems to me like yesterday since I sat here last in this delightful arm-chair, and looked about me on all these dear familiar objects. You 've varnished the Correggio, I think?"

"The Vandyk, my Lord."

"To be sure the Vandyk. How stupid I am! Indeed, Lady Foxington said that not all your culture would ever make anything of me."

"How is Charlotte?" asked Mrs. Ricketts, this being the familiar for Lady F.

"Just as you saw her last. Thinner, perhaps, but looking admirably."

"And the dear Duke how is he?"

"Gouty always gouty but able to be about."

"I am so glad to hear it. It is so refres.h.i.+ng to talk of old friends."

"They are always talking of you. I'm sure, 'Zoe' forgive me the liberty Zoe Ricketts is an authority on every subject of taste and literature."

"How did you come here, my Lord?" whispered Haggerstone.

"The new opera broke down, and there is no house open before twelve,"

was the hasty reply.

"Is Jemima married, my Lord?"

"No. There 's something or other wrong about the settlements. Who's the foreigner, Haggy?"

"A Pole. Petrolaffsky."

"No, no not a bit of it. _I_ know him," said the other, rapidly; then, turning to Mrs. Ricketts, he grew warmly interested in the private life and adventures of the n.o.bility, for all of whom she entertained a most catholic affection.

It was, indeed, a grand field-day for the peerage; even to the "Pensioners" all were under arms. It was a review such as she rarely enjoyed, and certainly she "improved the occasion." She scattered about her n.o.ble personages with the profusion of a child strewing wild-flowers. There were Dukes she had known from their cradles; Marchionesses with whom she had disported in childhood; Earls and Viscounts who had been her earliest playmates; not to speak of a more advanced stage in her history, when all these distinguished individuals were suppliants and suitors. To listen to her, you would swear that she had never played shuttlec.o.c.k with anything under an Earl, nor trundled a hoop with aught below a Lord in Waiting! Norwood fooled her to the top of her bent. To use his own phrase, "he left her easy hazards, and everything on the b.a.l.l.s." It is needless to state that, in such pleasant converse, she had no memory for the n.o.ble Viscount's own transgressions.

He might have robbed the Exchequer, or stolen the Crown jewels, for anything that she could recollect! and when, by a seeming accident, he did allude to Newmarket, and lament his most "unlucky book," she smiled complacently, as though to say that he could afford himself even the luxury of being ruined, and not care for it.

"Florence is pretty much as it used to be, I suppose," said he; "and one really needs one's friends to rebut and refute foolish rumors, when they get abroad. Now, you 'll oblige me by contradicting, if you ever hear, this absurd story. I neither did win forty thousand from the Duke of Stratton, nor shoot him in a duel for non-payment." Both these derelictions were invented on the moment. "You 'll hear fifty other similar offences laid to my charge; and I trust to you and the Onslows for the refutation. In fact, it is the duty of one's own cla.s.s to defend 'their order.'"

Mrs. Ricketts smiled blandly, and bowed, bowed as though her gauze turban had been a coronet, and the tinsel finery jewelled strawberry leaves! To be coupled with the Onslows in the defence of a viscount was a proud thought. What if it might be made a grand reality?

"Apropos of the Onslows, my Lord," said she, insidiously, "you are very intimate with them. How is it that we have seen so little of each other?

Are we not congenial spirits?"

"Good Heavens! I thought you were like sisters. There never were people so made for each other. All your tastes, habits, a.s.sociations forgive me, if I say your very, antipathies are alike; for you both are unforgiving enemies of vulgarity. Depend upon it, there has been some underhand influence at work. Rely on 't, that evil tongues have kept you apart." This he said in a whisper, and with a sidelong glance towards where Haggerstone sat at ecarte with the Pole.

"Do you really think so?" asked she, reddening with anger, as she followed the direction of his eyes.

"I can hit upon no other solution of the mystery," said he, thoughtfully; "but know it I will, and must. You know, of course, that they can't endure him?"

"No, I never heard that."