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‘You forget, I think, that I am not unprotected!’
‘Stourbridge?’ said Sir Charles. ‘Oh, no, I don’t forget him! If he cares to call me to book I shall be happy to answer him!’
At this point, Lord Stourbridge, who wished to come to fisticuffs with Sir Charles as little as he wished to expose his portly person to that gentleman’s deadly accuracy with a pistol, attempted to remonstrate with his sister. A glance silenced him; she said furiously: ‘Understand, Sir Charles, that our engagement is at an end! I shall be obliged to you if you will send the necessary notice to the Gazette!’
He bowed. ‘It is always a happiness to me to obey you, Almeria!’ he said outrageously.
6
REJOINING MISS MASSINGHAM in the parlour, he found her conscience-stricken. ‘Who was that lady, sir?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Why was she so very angry?’
‘That, my child, was the Lady Almeria Spalding. If you are ready to go –’
‘Lady Almeria! Are – are you not engaged to her?’
‘I was engaged to her!’
‘Oh!’ she cried. ‘What have I done? Did she cry off because of me?’
‘She did, but as we are not at all suited to one another I shall not reproach you for that. Foisting a repellant mongrel on me, however, which whined the better part of the night, is another matter; while as for your conduct in Marlborough –’
‘But – but don’t you care that your engagement is broken?’ she interrupted.
‘Not a bit!’
‘Perhaps she will think better of it, and forgive you,’ suggested Nan, in a somewhat wistful tone.
‘I am obliged to you for the warning, and shall insert into the Gazette the notice that my marriage will not take place the instant I reach London,’ he said cheerfully.
‘It is very dreadful, but, do you know, sir, I find I cannot be sorry for it!’
‘I am glad of that,’ he said, smiling.
‘She did not seem to me the kind of female you would like to be married to.’
‘I can imagine none more unlike that female!’
She looked enquiringly up at him, but he only laughed, and said: ‘Come, we must finish this journey of yours, if your grandfather is not to think that we have perished by the wayside!’
‘Do you think he will be angry when he hears all that has happened?’ she asked uneasily.
‘I fear that his anger will fall upon my head. He will say – and with truth! – that I have made a poor hand at looking after you. However, I trust that when he has heard the full tale of your atrocious conduct he will realize that it was experience, and not goodwill, that was lacking in me, and give me leave to study how to do better in future.’
‘I know you are quizzing me,’ said Nan, ‘but I don’t precisely understand what you mean, sir!’
‘I will tell you one day,’ promised Sir Charles. ‘But now we are going to drive to London! Come along!’
She went obediently with him to where the curricle waited, but when he lifted her into it, and disposed her injured foot upon the folded bolster, she sighed, and said shyly: ‘Shall I ever see you again, once I am fixed in Brook Street?’
‘Frequently!’ said Sir Charles, mounting into the curricle, and feeling his horses’ mouths.
Miss Massingham heaved a relieved sigh. ‘I am so glad!’ she said simply. ‘For I don’t feel that I could ever like anyone half as well!’
‘That,’ said Sir Charles, flicking a coin to the expectant ostler, ‘is what I mean to make very sure of, my dear and abominable brat!’
Pink Domino
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