Count Bunker Part 35

"Bot go, my friend! Bot go!" he cried, "and zen come back here to-morrow and ve vill leave togezzer."

"Leave you alone, with the barometer falling and the storm-cone hoisted?

I don't like to, Baron."

"Bot to leave zat leetle girl--eh, Bonker? How is zat?"

"Was ever a man so torn between two duties!" exclaimed the conscientious Count.

"Ladies come first!" quoth the Baron.

Bunker was obviously strongly tending to this opinion also.

"Can I trust you to guide your own destinies without me?"

The Baron drew himself up with a touch of indignation.

"Am I a child or a fool? I have guided mine destiny vary vell so far, and I zink I can still so do. Ven vill you go to see Miss Wallingford?"

"I'll hire a trap from the village after lunch and be off about four,"

said the Count. "Long live the ladies! Learn wisdom by my example! Will this tie conquer her, do you think?"

In this befitting spirit he drove off that afternoon, and the Baron, after waving his adieus from the door, strode brimful of confidence towards the drawing-room. His thoughts must have gone astray, for he turned by accident into the wrong room--a small apartment hardly used at all; and before he had time to turn back he stopped petrified at the sight of a picture on the wall. There could be no mistake--it was the original of that ill-omened print he had seen in the Edinburgh hotel, "The Execution of Lord Tulliwuddle." The actual t.i.tle was there plain to see.

"Zen it vas not a hoax!" he gasped.

His first impulse was to look for a bicycle and tear after the dog-cart.

"But can I ride him in a kilt?" he reflected.

By the time he had fully debated this knotty point his friend was miles upon his way, and the Baron was left ruefully to lament his rashness in parting with such an ally.

CHAPTER XXVII

During the horrid period of suspense that followed her visit to Sir Justin, the Baroness von Blitzenberg naturally enough felt disinclined to go much into society, and in fact rarely went out at all during the Baron's absence, except to the houses of one or two of her mother's particular friends. Even then she felt much more inclined to stay at home.

"Need we go to Mrs. Jerwin-Speedy's to-night?" she said one afternoon.

"Certainly," replied the Countess decisively.

Alicia sighed submissively; but this att.i.tude was abruptly changed into one of readiness, nay, even of alacrity, when her mother remarked--

"By the way, she is an aunt of the present Tulliwuddle. I believe it was you who were asking about him the other day."

"Was I?" said the Baroness carelessly; but she offered no further objections to attending Mrs. Jerwin-Speedy's reception.

She found there a large number of people compressed into a couple of small rooms, and she soon felt so lost in the crush of strangers, and the chances of obtaining any information about Lord Tulliwuddle or his Eva seemed so remote, that she soon began to wish herself comfortably at home again, even though it were only to fret. But fortune, which had so long been unkind to her and indulgent to her erring spouse, chose that night as the turning-point in her tide of favors. Little dreaming how much hung on a mere introduction, Mrs. Jerwin-Speedy led up to the Baroness an apparently nervous and diffident young man.

"Let me introduce my nephew, Lord Tulliwuddle--the Baroness von Blitzenberg," said she; and having innocently hurled this bomb, retired from further partic.i.p.ation in the drama.

With young and diffident men Alicia had a pleasant instinct for conducting herself as smilingly as though they were the greatest wits about the town. The envious of her s.e.x declared that it was because she scarcely recognized the difference; but be that as it may, it served her on this occasion in the most admirable stead. She detached the agitated peer from the thickest of the throng, propped him beside her against the wall, and by her kindness at length unloosed his tongue. Then it was she began to suspect that his nervous manner must surely be due to some peculiar circ.u.mstance rather than mere const.i.tutional shyness. Made observant by her keen curiosity, she noticed at first a worried, almost hunted, look in his eyes and an extreme impatience of scrutiny by his fellow-guests; but as he gained confidence in her kindness and discretion these pa.s.sed away, and he appeared simply a garrulous young man, with a tolerably good opinion of himself.

"Poor fellow! He is in trouble of some kind. Something to do with Eva, of course!" she said to her sympathetically.

The genuine Tulliwuddle had indeed some cause for perturbation. After keeping himself out of the way of all his friends and most of his acquaintances ever since the departure of his subst.i.tute, hearing nothing of what was happening at Hechnahoul, and living in daily dread of the ignominious exposure of their plot, he had stumbled by accident against his aunt, explained his prolonged absence from her house with the utmost difficulty, and found himself forced to appease her wounded feelings by appearing where he least wished to be seen--in a crowded London reception-room. No wonder the unfortunate young man seemed nervous and ill at ease.

As for Alicia, she was consumed with anxiety to know why he was here and not in Scotland, as Sir Justin had supposed; and, indeed, to learn a number of things. And now they were rapidly getting on sufficiently familiar terms for her to put a tactful question or two. Encouraged by her sympathy, he began to touch upon his own anxieties.

"A young man ought to get married, I suppose," he remarked confidentially.

The Baroness smiled.

"That depends on whether he likes any one well enough to marry her, doesn't it?"

He sighed.

"Do you think--honestly now," he said solemnly, "that one should marry for love or marry for money?"

"For love, certainly!"

"You really think so? You'd advise--er--advise a fellow to blow the prejudices of his friends, and that sort of thing?"

"I should have to know a little more about the case."

He was evidently longing for a confidant.

"Suppose er--one girl was ripping, but--well--on the stage, for instance."

"On the stage!" exclaimed the Baroness. "Yes, please go on. What about the other girl?"

"Suppose she had simply pots of money, but the fellow didn't know much more about her?"

"I certainly shouldn't marry a girl I didn't know a good deal about,"

said the Baroness with conviction.

Lord Tulliwuddle seemed impressed with this opinion.

"That's just what I have begun to think," said he, and gazed down at his pumps with a meditative air.

The Baroness thought the moment had come when she could effect a pretty little surprise.

"Which of them is called Eva?" she asked archly.

To her intense disappointment he merely stared.

"Don't you really know any girl called Eva?"

He shook his head.