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‘Oh, poor little boy!’ she exclaimed involuntarily.
‘By no means! I don’t recall that I ever expressed a wish that wasn’t instantly gratified.’
She checked herself on the brink of impetuous speech, and said, after a tiny pause, and in a rallying tone: ‘Well! I am now most truly obliged to you, cousin! You have taught me what poor Mr Ansdell never could!’
‘Have I indeed? What’s that?’
‘Not to hanker after riches, of course! I was used to think, you know, that to be born to rank, fortune, and consequence must be so very pleasant; but I see now that it’s nothing but a dead bore!’ The carriage was drawing up; she held out her hand, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes. ‘Good-bye! Thank you for my lesson, and for introducing me to your sister! I had meant to have thanked you for coming to my rescue, but I shan’t do so, because I am now persuaded that it did you a great deal of good to be obliged to exert yourself.’
He took her hand, but only to place it firmly in her lap again. ‘Too previous, cousin! Spoilt though I am, I mean to exert myself sufficiently to escort you to your door.’
‘You have such distinguished manners, my lord!’ she murmured demurely.
‘I have, haven’t I?’ he retorted. ‘Another lesson for you – you brass-faced little gypsy!’
She burst out laughing; but when she gave him her hand again, on the doorstep, she said, looking up into his face: ‘Did I offend you? No, I don’t think so. I am grateful to you for having come so splendidly to my rescue, and very sorry to have embroiled you in such a troublesome affair.’
‘Since it is well-known that my distinguished manners crumble at a touch, I shall make no apology for telling you that you are a baggage, Frederica!’
Her laughter bubbled up again; he smiled slightly; flicked her cheek with one careless finger; and trod down the steps to his carriage, under the disapproving stare of Buddle, who was holding open the door for his young mistress, and took it upon himself to reprove her for not keeping a proper distance. It was of no use to point out to him that the Marquis was almost old enough to have been her father; and worse than useless to try and snub him; devoted retainers who (as they never hesitate to remind one) had known one from the cradle, were impossible to snub. ‘Now, that’s quite enough, Miss Frederica!’ said Buddle severely. ‘I’m only telling you for your own good, and I should be failing in my duty if I didn’t. Over and over again I’ve told you that you can’t carry on in London like you do at home. A nice thing it would be if people was to take you for a rackety gadabout!’
The Marquis, meanwhile, was being driven back to Berkeley Square. It was his intention to try out his latest acquisition, a team of high-bred grays, war
ranted by their late owner to be sweet-goers, and enviously described by the gentleman who had been outbidden by his lordship as four very tidy ones indeed. This agreeable scheme had been disturbed by the arrival of Frederica, but the day was not too far advanced for a drive to Richmond, or to Wimbledon. Alighting from his carriage in Berkeley Square, he gave the order for his perch-phaeton to be brought round immediately, and entered the house, to be greeted by joyful yelps and a storm of mingled barks and whines. Lufra, tethered to the lowest banister, recognised the one surviving link with his mistress, and hailed him as his deliverer.
Eight
Since the Marquis was quite unable to make his voice heard above Lufra’s, he was obliged to reassure and to quell the faithful hound before demanding an explanation from his butler. While Lufra, released from bondage, fawned at his feet, whimpering with mingled relief and entreaty, and dulling the glossy surface of his Hessians in a way that would have smitten his lordship’s valet to the soul, he said, in a voice that was none the less terrible for its languor: ‘I thought I gave orders that this dog was to be taken to Upper Wimpole Street?’
His cold gaze rested on Wicken’s face, but James, the first footman, and Walter, his subordinate, quaked in their buckled shoes. Wicken, who was made of sterner stuff, replied with majestic calm: ‘Yes, my lord. Every effort has been made to do so. Unfortunately, the Animal refused to leave the premises, either with Walter, or with James. I regret to inform your lordship that when pressure was brought to bear he turned quite Nasty – even with Me! I thought it best to tie him up to the banister, awaiting your lordship’s return. Otherwise,’ he said, outdoing the Marquis in frigidity, ‘he would have scratched the library-door down.’
‘What a revolting creature you are!’ said Alverstoke, addressing himself, much to the relief of his footmen, to Lufra. ‘No, no, down, damn you, down! Where is Mr Trevor?’ As he spoke, his eyes alighted on his secretary, who had that instant emerged from his office at the back of the house, and was surveying the scene with something perilously like a grin on his countenance. ‘Oh, you’re there, are you? Then, for God’s sake, do something about this abominable mongrel!’
‘Mongrel, sir?’ responded Mr Trevor, in astonished accents. ‘I thought he was a –’
‘Don’t try me too far, Charles! You thought nothing of the sort! Why haven’t you seen to it that he was restored to his owner?’
‘Well, I did my best, sir,’ said Charles. ‘But he wouldn’t go with me either.’
‘Now tell me that he tried to savage you, and you will have gone your length!’ said Alverstoke, repulsing Lufra’s adoring advances.
‘Oh, no, he didn’t do that! He merely squatted on his haunches!’ said Charles cheerfully. ‘By the time I had dragged him as far as Davies Street I judged it to be time to return, no fewer than three kindly females having exclaimed at my brutality to a dumb creature. Besides, I was exhausted!’
‘Why the devil didn’t you bundle him into a hack?’
‘We did make the attempt – all four of us – but he’s not the sort of dog you can bundle, sir – unmuzzled! That was when Walter got bitten. I daresay we might have contrived to get him into the hack, but we none of us fancied a drive in his company. The thing was that his mistress left him here, and here he was determined to remain until she reclaimed him.’ Meeting Alverstoke’s eyes with the utmost blandness, he added: ‘I believe these Baluchistan hounds are famous for their fidelity, sir.’
‘Oh, do you indeed?’ said his lordship wrathfully.
‘So I have always understood,’ said Charles. He watched Lufra paw the Marquis imperatively, and a happy thought occurred to him. ‘Perhaps he would consent to go with you, sir?’ he suggested.
‘A little more, and you will find yourself dismissed with ignominy, Charles! If you imagine that I am going to lead this misbegotten cur through the streets of London you must be out of your mind!’ He turned towards his footmen, so swiftly that they had no time to wipe the appreciative grins from their faces. Having reduced both to a state of rigid imbecility by the mere power of his eye, he said: ‘One of you – oh, no, you are already wounded, are you not, Walter? – You, James, may betake yourself to Upper Wimpole Street! Desire Master Jessamy Merriville to be so good as to come here to collect his dog immediately!’
But even as these words left his lips a bell was heard to clang in the nether regions, and the knocker on the front door was plied with enough violence to make his lordship wince. Walter moved to open the door, and was almost swept off his feet by the tempestuous entrance of Master Jessamy Merriville, with his brother at his heels.
‘I’ve come for my dog – is his lordship at home? I must – Down, Luff! Sit! – Oh, sir, is that you? I do beg your pardon! I am excessively sorry, and I jumped into a hack and came the instant Frederica told me, because I knew what must have happened, and how she can have supposed that Luff would go off with a stranger – but females are such nodcocks! Pray forgive me!’
‘Not at all!’ said his lordship. ‘I am delighted to see you! In fact, I was on the point of sending one of my people to summon you, none of them being able to persuade Luff to leave the house.’
