"I consent to your going with Mr. Woodley; but I should not let you go with an Englishman.""Miss Bessie wouldn't care to go with an Englishman!"Mr. Woodley declared with a faint asperity that was, perhaps, not unnatural in a young man, who, dressing in the manner that I have indicated and knowing a great deal, as I have said, about London, saw no reason for drawing these sharp distinctions.
He agreed upon a day with Miss Bessie--a day of that same week.
An ingenious mind might, perhaps, trace a connection between the young girl's allusion to her destitution of social privileges and a question she asked on the morrow as she sat with her sister at lunch.
"Don't you mean to write to--to anyone?" said Bessie.
"I wrote this morning to Captain Littledale," Mrs. Westgate replied.
"But Mr. Woodley said that Captain Littledale had gone to India.""He said he thought he had heard so; he knew nothing about it."For a moment Bessie Alden said nothing more; then, at last, "And don't you intend to write to--to Mr. Beaumont?" she inquired.
"You mean to Lord Lambeth," said her sister.
"I said Mr. Beaumont because he was so good a friend of yours."Mrs. Westgate looked at the young girl with sisterly candor.
"I don't care two straws for Mr. Beaumont.""You were certainly very nice to him."
"I am nice to everyone," said Mrs. Westgate simply.
"To everyone but me," rejoined Bessie, smiling.
Her sister continued to look at her; then, at last, "Are you in love with Lord Lambeth?" she asked.
The young girl stared a moment, and the question was apparently too humorous even to make her blush. "Not that I know of," she answered.
"Because if you are," Mrs. Westgate went on, "I shall certainly not send for him.""That proves what I said," declared Bessie, smiling--"that you are not nice to me.""It would be a poor service, my dear child," said her sister.
"In what sense? There is nothing against Lord Lambeth that I know of."Mrs. Westgate was silent a moment. "You ARE in love with him then?"Bessie stared again; but this time she blushed a little.
"Ah! if you won't be serious," she answered, "we will not mention him again."For some moments Lord Lambeth was not mentioned again, and it was Mrs. Westgate who, at the end of this period, reverted to him.
"Of course I will let him know we are here, because I think he would be hurt--justly enough--if we should go away without seeing him.
It is fair to give him a chance to come and thank me for the kindness we showed him. But I don't want to seem eager.""Neither do I," said Bessie with a little laugh.
"Though I confess," added her sister, "that I am curious to see how he will behave.""He behaved very well at Newport."
"Newport is not London. At Newport he could do as he liked;but here it is another affair. He has to have an eye to consequences.""If he had more freedom, then, at Newport," argued Bessie, "it is the more to his credit that he behaved well; and if he has to be so careful here, it is possible he will behave even better.""Better--better," repeated her sister. "My dear child, what is your point of view?""How do you mean--my point of view?"
"Don't you care for Lord Lambeth--a little?"This time Bessie Alden was displeased; she slowly got up from the table, turning her face away from her sister.
"You will oblige me by not talking so," she said.
Mrs. Westgate sat watching her for some moments as she moved slowly about the room and went and stood at the window.
"I will write to him this afternoon," she said at last.
"Do as you please!" Bessie answered; and presently she turned round.
"I am not afraid to say that I like Lord Lambeth. I like him very much.""He is not clever," Mrs. Westgate declared.
"Well, there have been clever people whom I have disliked,"said Bessie Alden; "so that I suppose I may like a stupid one.
Besides, Lord Lambeth is not stupid."
"Not so stupid as he looks!" exclaimed her sister, smiling.
"If I were in love with Lord Lambeth, as you said just now, it would be bad policy on your part to abuse him.""My dear child, don't give me lessons in policy!" cried Mrs. Westgate.
"The policy I mean to follow is very deep."The young girl began to walk about the room again; then she stopped before her sister. "I have never heard in the course of five minutes," she said, "so many hints and innuendoes.
I wish you would tell me in plain English what you mean.""I mean that you may be much annoyed."
"That is still only a hint," said Bessie.
Her sister looked at her, hesitating an instant.
"It will be said of you that you have come after Lord Lambeth--that you followed him."
Bessie Alden threw back her pretty head like a startled hind, and a look flashed into her face that made Mrs. Westgate rise from her chair.
"Who says such things as that?" she demanded.
"People here."
"I don't believe it," said Bessie.
"You have a very convenient faculty of doubt. But my policy will be, as I say, very deep. I shall leave you to find out this kind of thing for yourself."Bessie fixed her eyes upon her sister, and Mrs. Westgate thought for a moment there were tears in them. "Do they talk that way here?" she asked.
"You will see. I shall leave you alone.""Don't leave me alone," said Bessie Alden. "Take me away.""No; I want to see what you make of it," her sister continued.
"I don't understand."
"You will understand after Lord Lambeth has come," said Mrs. Westgate with a little laugh.
The two ladies had arranged that on this afternoon Willie Woodley should go with them to Hyde Park, where Bessie Alden expected to derive much entertainment from sitting on a little green chair, under the great trees, beside Rotten Row.
The want of a suitable escort had hitherto rendered this pleasure inaccessible; but no escort now, for such an expedition, could have been more suitable than their devoted young countryman, whose mission in life, it might almost be said, was to find chairs for ladies, and who appeared on the stroke of half-past five with a white camellia in his buttonhole.