“Must it be either or?” Lord Baderston asked.
“It is not that itmustbe either or,” Cordelia said, “it is just that sometimes itiseither or.”
This did not seem to clear things up for Lord Baderston. Darden was looking just as befuddled.
“Perhaps,” Conbatten said, “it would be quicker to the finish to just name the two gentlemen in question?”
She had not thought she would be asked to name them.
“It’s Lord Harveston and Lord Hamill,” Juliet said.
“Ah, is there a rivalry between them for your heart, Cordy?” Rosalind asked.
“No! Certainly not! I was just wondering about…the merits of the thing.”
“Were you?” Viola asked. “I am surprised, though, Cordy. Lord Hamill is a Corinthian and Lord Harveston is…well, I do not know what he is. Rather serious, I’m afraid.”
“Harveston is a good friend,” Lord Baderston said.
“I second that,” Darden said. “He is just, well he’s the sort of fellow that…becomes a good friend on further acquaintance.”
“And Hamill?” Cordelia asked, hoping they would tell her something that would intrigue her.
“Hamill is a jolly fellow,” Darden said.
“Always good for sport,” Lord Baderston said.
“If he is on his horse, I lay my bets in his direction,” Conbatten said.
“I have only noticed that one of them reads everything and the other reads nothing,” Cordelia said.
“There is no point in comparing them, I do not think,” Conbatten said. “They are two ends of a spectrum. One somehow stumbled his way through Oxford and the other would stumble in a boxing ring.”
“That reminds me, you never did say, Cordelia,” Darden said, “how you and Miss Mayton made out at Harveston’s literary salon.”
Cordelia certainly did not know why stumbling through Oxford or stumbling in a boxing ring should remind Darden of them going to the salon.
“We were lost ducklings bobbing in the ocean,” Miss Mayton said. “A Shakespeare play nobody has ever heard of, then another play by another fellow and did he have the first play in his possession? It was rather grueling until we ladies decided to have our own more pleasant conversations.”
Cordelia noted Conbatten suppressing the smallest smile. In a rather defensive tone, she said, “We could not know anything about it, as we did not have the schedule of discussions as everybody else did. We are far more prepared for the next salon.”
“They were in the library for above an hour this morning,” the earl said, as if to back up her claim.
“Goodness,” Rosalind said, “what were you studying?”
“It is not so much what we were studying,” Miss Mayton said, “as it was what we decided we would not study.”
“We decided to use womanly judgment,” Juliet said in a defiant tone, “as women have been doing since time began. I dare Aristotle to write an ode aboutthat.”
Before anybody could comment on Aristotle writing an ode at this late date in his history, Benny raced into the dining room, breathless. “The goat,” he said. “He’s gone out the open window in the drawing room!”
The gentlemen sprung out of their seats and raced through the doors, with only the earl trailing behind. The ladies were not far behind them.
They must find Lord Darling! He might be run down under carriage wheels or stolen or lost and wandering round forlorn!
Cordelia did not stop for her cloak but ran out the doors and to the streets with Juliet on her heels.
Lord Darling was on the street and not so much lost as he was refusing to be caught. Conbatten ran one way, Darden the other way, and Lord Baderston took up the rear.
