April Lady (14 page)

"Worst thing in the world!" he assured her.

"I don't see why it should be. After all—"

"You may not see why, but it ain't a bit of use telling me you didn't know it, because I've been watching you," said Mr. Hethersett severely. "Going backwards and forwards like a cat on a hot bake-stone!"

"Oh, how can you say such an uncivil thing?" she protested. "I did
not!"

"That's what it looked like to me," he said, with great firmness. "Not the moment for civility, either. Got a great regard for you, cousin. Dashed fond of Giles, too. Wouldn't wish to see either of you in a tangle. Thing is—nothing he wouldn't give you! Officious thing to do—giving you advice—but if you're in a fix you tell him, not Jew King!"

She said unhappily: "There are circumstances which— Oh, I can't explain it to you, but he mustn't know of this!"

To her relief he forbore to press her. She would have been dismayed, however, had she known the construction he had put on her words.

Mr. Hethersett, who had so strongly disapproved of his cousin's alliance with any member of Lord Pevensey's family, had now the doubtful felicity of realizing how just had been his objections to the marriage. If Nell had incurred a debt she dared not disclose to Cardross, it was as plain as a pikestaff that she had embroiled herself in her brother's chaotic affairs. In Mr. Hethersett's view that was almost the only form of expenditure Cardross would not tolerate in his wife. Probably he would not take gaming debts in good part either, but Mr. Hethersett did not think that Nell was a gamester. He had once struggled to support her through several rubbers of whist, an experience which had left him in doubt of her ability to distinguish spades from clubs.

He had made his offer to rescue her from her embarrassments in good faith, but he was considerably relieved by her instant refusal of it. He enjoyed a considerable independence, but the last settling-day at Tattersall's had not been happy, and to have advanced what he feared must be a very large sum of money to Nell must have left him in uncomfortably straitened circumstances. It might also, if the truth leaked out, have involved him in a quarrel with Car-dross, who would certainly feel that he had behaved in a very improper way. Cardross was a man of calm judgment, so it was perhaps unlikely that he would suspect his cousin of having formed a warmer attachment for Nell than was seemly. At the same time, there was no predicting what crackbrained notion a man deeply in love might take into his head; and Mr. Hethersett was uneasily aware that by assuming the role of Nell's cicisbeo-in-chief he had certainly laid himself open to attack. Nor had he the smallest desire to contribute towards Dysart's relief. Mr. Hethersett, a gentleman of the first respectability, and a high stickler in all matters of taste and conduct, disapproved unequivocally of such dashing blades as Dysart. Such feats as jumping one's horse over a loaded dinner-table awoke no admiration in his breast, for anything that set people in an uproar was bad ton, and to be in bad ton was to be beyond pardon. The world of fashion might embrace all manner of men: the Out-and-Outers, the Tulips, the Dashes, Tippies, and Bloods: but the first style of elegance could only be achieved by those whose dress and deportment were characterized by an exquisite moderation. Dysart was never moderate. In the saddle he was a hard-goer; on the road his ambition was to give the go-by to every other vehicle; in the gaming-room, not content, like Mr. Hethersett, to sport a little blunt on the table, he played deep. He engaged In hare-brained pranks; and the chances were that if you met him any time after noon you would find him ripe already. None but the very strait-laced objected, of course, to a man's becoming foxed during the course of a convivial evening; but either Dysart had an uncommonly weak head, or he was carrying his drinking propensity beyond the line of what was acceptable. As for his debts, he had been monstrously in the wind at the time of his sister's marriage, and he had had ample time, since being relieved by Cardross of his more pressing obligations, to run himself to a standstill again. It would be typical of him, Mr. Hethersett considered, to apply to his sister for succour; and ridiculous to suppose that she could bring herself to deny him. He did not blame her in the least, but he was strongly of the opinion that such reckless generosity ought to be checked before it had run to such lengths as must put her as well as Dysart heavily in debt. A hazy recollection of the appalling load of debt under which Devonshire's mother had died flitted through his mind. Astronomical figures had been whispered: probably false, for no one knew the exact truth, but it must have been a monstrous sum. It was said she had lost a huge fortune at play: queer sort of fellow the old Duke must have been, not to have known what his wife was about, thought Mr. Hethersett. Things would never get to that pitch of disaster in Cardross's household, of course; still, they might become pretty bad before he discovered what was happening. He was rich enough to be able to stand the nonsense, but Mr. Hethersett had a very fair idea of what his feelings would be if he found Nell out in such deception. Someone, he decided, ought to drop him a hint now, before any serious mischief had been done, and while he was still so much in love with Nell that he would find it easy to excuse her folly. He was inclined for a moment to regret having promised Nell he would not betray her to Cardross; but as soon as he played with the notion of making such a disclosure to his cousin his imagination boggled at it. Under no circumstances could he have done it. The proper person to intervene was Lady Pevensey, and had she been in town he might, he thought, have contrived to hint her on to the trouble. Only she was miles away, tied to that ramshackle husband of hers, and there was no saying, after all, that she would see the matter as she ought: she had never seemed to Mr. Hethersett to have much more wit than a pea-goose; besides, she doted on Dysart so fondly that she might possibly think his interests of more importance than Nell's.

Nell's voice, would-be cheerful, but decidedly nervous, intruded on these ruminations. "You are very silent!" she said.

"I beg pardon!" he said. "I was thinking."

"About—about
this?"
she asked anxiously.

"No," he said unblushingly. "Thinking we should take a look-in at Gunter's. You'd like an ice, I daresay. Just the thing!"

She thanked him, but declined the treat. She would have declined the offer of a chair to carry her home, too, but on this point Mr. Hethersett was firm, knowing well what was due to her consequence. To be strolling through the streets of London with only himself as escort would not do for Lady Cardross. So he beckoned to a couple of chairmen before suggesting to her that he should do so, handed her into the chair, and completed his politeness by walking beside it to Grosvenor Square, and engaging her in a commonplace conversation that gave her to understand that he had dismissed the episode in Clarges Street from his mind.

CHAPTER SIX

 
 
« 
   
^
   
 »

Rescued from
the perils of Clarges Street, and restored to the shelter of her own house, Nell hardly knew whether to be grateful to Mr. Hethersett for having thrust a spoke in her wheel, or resentful. When the moment had come for knocking on Mr. King's door she had certainly been extremely reluctant to do so, and had suffered very much the same sensations as if she had been about to have a tooth drawn; but her dependence now was all on Dysart, whom she had not seen since the night of the masquerade, and who might, for anything she knew, have taken a pet at having his ingenious plot frustrated, or (which was even more likely) have forgotten all about her troubles. She and Letty were going to the Opera that evening, where it was extremely improbable that she would meet him; so she wrote a letter to him, telling him how urgent her need had become, and begging him he would call in Grosvenor Square.

She had hardly dispatched this missive, by the hand of her footman, when Letty came in. In general, when Letty went shopping, she returned laden with parcels, and eager to display to her sister-in-law a collection of expensive frivolities which had happened to catch her eye; but on this occasion she had nothing to show but a disconsolate face. She said she had had a stupid morning, but when Nell asked if she had been unable to find a muslin she liked, she replied: "Oh, yes! Martha has it. I met my cousins, and went with them to Grafton House, all amongst the quizzy people. Selina
would
have me go, because she said there were amazing bargains to be had there. I must say, they had a great many muslins. I chose a checked one, but I daresay I shan't like it above half when it is made up. It cost seven shillings the yard, too, and I don't consider
that
a bargain, do you?"

"No, but checked muslin is always dearer than the plain colours. I hope the Miss Thornes are quite well?" Nell said politely.

"Yes—at least, I didn't enquire. Selina seemed pretty stout. Fanny was gone with my aunt to Mrs. Mee, to arrange to have her likeness taken. They are persuaded Humby means to come to the point, and Selina says my aunt and uncle are in transports, though I can't think why they should be, for he presents a very off appearance, don't you think? besides having some odd humours."

"I don't know that. I believe he is very respectable," Nell responded, wondering whether her cousin's approaching betrothal was accountable for the clouded look on Letty's vivid little face. "I collect it was Mrs. Thistleton, then, who was with Miss Selina Thorne?"

"Yes, and I can tell you I was soon wishing her at the deuce!" said Letty, with a disgusted pout. "She is increasing, and bent on telling the whole of London! You would suppose no one had ever before been in her situation, for she can talk of nothing else! And then what must we do but walk into Lady Eastwell!
She
expects to be confined next month, and nothing could be like her simperings and sighings and affectations! Sir Godfrey is
aux anges
over the
petit paquet
she means to present to him.
Petit paquet! Un tr
è
s grand paquet,
I should think, for I never saw anyone so large! I was vexed to death, dawdling along in her company, and being obliged to listen to such insipid stuff! And Maria at least was used to be the most entertaining creature! I do hope
you
won't turn into a bothersome bore when you start increasing, Nell!"

The colour rushed up into Nell's cheeks; she said: "I hope not, indeed!" but in a constricted voice, for Letty's careless words had touched her on the raw. It was some months since Lady Pevensey, tearing herself away from her stricken lord to visit her daughter, had soothed an anxiety which was even then teasing Nell. "Think nothing of it, dearest!" she had said, adding, with simple pride: "You are like me, and you know I had been married for three years before dear Dysart was born."

Nell had been comforted; and although the prospect of being obliged to wait for three years before she gave Cardross an heir was dismal, it was permissible to indulge the hope that she might find herself in an interesting situation considerably earlier than had Mama. And since Cardross, neither by word nor by look, gave the least sign of disappointment, and her mind was pleasantly occupied with the manifold gaieties of fashionable life, she had not thought very much about it. But Letty's petulant remark was ill-timed: her quite uninteresting situation now seemed to Nell of a piece with all the rest of her iniquities. She was proving herself to be in every way a deplorable wife: foolish, deceitful, spendthrift, and barren!

Fortunately, since her deep blush betrayed her, Letty had picked up the latest number of the
Ladies' Magazine,
and was contemptuously flicking over the pages, and commenting disparagingly on the fashions depicted in this valuable periodical, so that Nell had time in which to recover her countenance.

"Good heavens, I never saw anything so dowdy! . . . Slate-coloured twilled sarsnet, lined with white—
what
a figure to make of oneself! . . . Do these new Bishop-sleeves hit your fancy? I don't think them pretty at all, and as for this evening gown, with French braces over the bodice—!"

"I liked the picture of the pelisse, with the round cape," Nell said, trying to infuse her voice with interest.

"For my part, I think it no more than tolerable. Unless one is a regular Long Meg, those capes make one appear positively
squat!
Hair-brown merino, too! Horridly drab!" Letty cast the
Ladies' Magazine
aside, and, after hesitating for a moment, said, in a voice whose carelessness was a little studied: "By the by, I shall have to cry off going with you to Somerset House tomorrow, Nell. Selina has been telling me that my aunt is hipped because I have not been to visit her quite lately, and is saying she had not thought I could show such a want of affection, or have my head turned so utterly that I don't any longer care to be with her. You know how it is with her! She is cast into raptures, or down in a minute. So, if you do not very particularly wish to look at pictures tomorrow—I daresay they will be a dead bore, too!—I think I should go to my aunt's, and make her comfortable again."

Nell agreed to it, thought she might, had she been less preoccupied, have wondered at Letty's sudden concern for Mrs. Thorne's comfort. That Mrs. Thorne might be piqued by a lack of proper observance could surprise no one who knew Letty, for without having the least ill-nature, or want of disposition to render attention where it was due, she had never been taught to consider the feelings of others, or to consult any convenience but her own. Having so easily won Nell's acquiescence, she took herself off to her own bedchamber, there to peruse for the third time the very disturbing letter she had received from Mr. Allandale.