AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But the change had come too late. Maidie had conceived a violent dislike of Lady Shurland, and her determination to be gone from East Dean into her own establishment, by whatever means, had become fixed.
“What a very unpleasant female, to be sure,” commented Lady Hester when the Worm came to the end of her disclosures. “You did quite right to enlist Laurie’s help instead, Maidie.”
“Yes, but I am not as certain of that,” said Maidie, recalling her grievance. “No one has shown the smallest disposition to attach me, and unless Delagarde will allow news of my fortune to become generally known—”
“My dear child, you have scarce been in society a week or two. Indeed, last night was the first occasion upon which you may be said to have met any eligible young men.”
“But I didn’t. At least, none of them talked to me for more than a moment. Except Mr Hampford and his friend, and they only used me to make an impression upon the other ladies.”
“It does not signify. We have secured any number of engagements over the next few weeks, and you are bound to meet a good many gentlemen.”
An unpleasant recollection seized Maidie. What was it Eustace had said about the gossips watching to see if she should succeed with Delagarde? But how would they know? Unless he or Adela were to—
“It will avail me nothing to meet these gentlemen,” she burst out on the thought, “if Adela and Eustace set it about that I am in a plot to entrap Delagarde!”
Lady Hester stared at her blankly. “You are what?”
Maidie flushed. Her voice went gruff. “I had not meant to say anything about it. Only Adela said it last night, and Eustace spoke of it again today. That is what set me thinking—because I knew I had no such scheme in mind—whether the boot might not be on the other leg. It had not occurred to me until just now that perhaps those two might tell it to the world.”
“Oh dear, oh dear,” fluttered the Worm. “They might well, dear Lady Hester. It would be so like Lady Shurland to do such a thing.”
Maidie watched the frown gathering on Lady Hester’s brow. She did not think, she could not think—! But, catching Maidie’s eye, the older woman smiled.
“Do not be imagining I have such an idea in my head, child. I know well you had no such intention when you came to us. But this must be thought of.”
Maidie hesitated. But the question had to be asked. “Do you think Lord Delagarde perhaps harbours that suspicion?”
The elder lady’s laughter reassured her. “Gracious, no! Laurie is not such a fool.” She drew a resolute breath. “But the same cannot be said of the world at large. Something must be done.”
Chapter Eight
“You want me to keep my distance?” said Delagarde, incredulous. “What game are you playing, Aunt? If you think it escaped my notice you had conceived the notion of bringing about a match between us, you are mistaken.”
“Is that why you have so determinedly been trying to prove me wrong?”
Delagarde eyed her with acute suspicion, leaning against the mantelshelf in the little downstairs parlour where she had dragged him on his return to the house. It was dusk, and no fire had been lit. The room was both shadowed and cold, and he was in need of dinner. But Aunt Hes had successfully diverted his attention from these evils. He did not know what she was about, but he was too well acquainted with her not to know she was brewing mischief.
“I have not been trying to prove anything. Whatever I have done, it has been in reaction to that troublesome girl’s activities.”
“Then it cannot be anything but a relief to you to be requested to remain out of her vicinity for a few days,” returned his great-aunt prosaically.
He remained obstinate. “To what purpose?”
Lady Hester laughed. “Oh, very well. I might have known there would be no driving you without giving a reason.”
“So you might. But as I am still in the dark, I must request you to answer my question.”
He watched her take a seat in the chair where Maidie had sat the very first day, and the remaining light from the window fell on her face. She looked serious, and Delagarde was surprised. Was there something to this after all?
“I am afraid Lady Shurland and her brother are liable to prove bothersome.”
As he listened to a fluent account of the day’s events, Delagarde found, to his annoyance, his mind dwelled stubbornly on the absurd supposition that Maidie’s whole enterprise had been designed as a plot to entrap him into matrimony. That she had entertained for so much as an instant the ridiculous notion he had some idea of entrapping her served only to illustrate her innocence. Only a nincompoop would suppose him to be motivated by forty-five thousand pounds. His own fortune, in investments and the income from his estates, yielded considerably more in the space of a year. She did not know that, of course, but he would have supposed his whole attitude to her must indicate how mad she was to think of it.
But this accusation from Lady Shurland and her brother—quite as idiotic—persisted in his head long after he had agreed to Lady Hester’s scheme to frustrate them. She was of the opinion they would not mention the matter if they could see nothing was to be gained by it, and no one could make anything of such a rumour if the parties concerned were rarely seen together. A period of this, and society would have formed their own views, which would render rumour profitless to the scandalmongers.
Delagarde was ready enough to fall in with the scheme, even if he still suspected Aunt Hes had a wider purpose in mind than she had told him. It was no pleasure to him, he told himself, to be obliged to waste his time—and do violence to his temper—in keeping Maidie from committing every kind of imprudence. There was as little hardship in giving up attendance at a Saturday concert evening, instead spending time with his cronies at Boodle’s, as there was in driving out of town on Monday for a couple of nights to witness a prize fight instead of attending two insipid evening parties. Not that Delagarde would have thought of abandoning his pleasures on Maidie’s behalf, had he not conceived it to be his duty to carry out the responsibility he had taken on.
He was naturally delighted to be let off his leash, so to speak, and if he once or twice found his imagination dwelling on what trouble Maidie might have got herself into without him, it was not to be wondered at. He supposed it must be equally unsurprising he should be thinking so much of that insane suggestion of Maidie’s trying to entrap him, because he must wonder whether his absence had discouraged, as was hoped, Silsoe and Lady Shurland from putting such a rumour about. No one would believe it, now he and Maidie had not appeared together in society for the better part of a week.
