Patricia Brent, Spinster Part 20

"Poor Aunt Adelaide," Patricia murmured to herself, "they'll turn her giddy young head."

"And now," Lady Tanagra began when Bowen had taken Miss Brent's cup from her. "I must explain all about this little romance and how it came about."

Patricia caught Bowen's eye, and saw in it a look of eager interest.

"Patricia wanted to do war work in her spare time," continued Lady Tanagra, "so she applied to the V.A.D. at St. George's Crescent. I am on the committee and, by a happy chance," Lady Tanagra smiled across to Patricia, "she was sent to me. I saw she was not strong and dissuaded her."

Miss Brent nodded approval.

"I explained," continued Lady Tanagra, "that the work was very hard, and that it was not necessarily patriotic to overwork so as to get ill.

Doctors have quite enough to do."

Again Miss Brent nodded agreement.

"I think we liked each other from the first," again Lady Tanagra smiled across at Patricia, "and I asked her to come and have tea with me, and we became friends. Finally, one day when we were enjoying a quiet talk here in the lounge, this big brother of mine comes along and spoils everything." Lady Tanagra regarded Bowen with reproachful eyes.

"Spoiled everything?" enquired Miss Brent.

"Yes; by falling in love with my friend, and in a most treacherous manner she must do the same." Lady Tanagra's tone was matter-of-fact enough to deceive a misanthropist.

Patricia's cheeks burned and her eyes fell beneath the gaze of the others. She felt as a man might who reads his own obituary notices.

"And why was I not told, her sole surviving relative?" Miss Brent rapped out the question with the air of a counsel for the prosecution.

"That was my fault," broke in Bowen.

Three pairs of eyes were instantly turned upon him. Miss Brent suspicious, Lady Tanagra admiring, Patricia wondering.

"And why, may I ask?" enquired Miss Brent.

"I wanted it to be a secret between Patricia and me," explained Bowen easily.

"But, Lady Tanagra----" There was a note in Miss Brent's voice that Patricia recognised as a soldier does the gas-gong.

"Oh!" replied Bowen, "she finds out everything; but I only told her at lunch to-day."

"And he told me as if I had not already discovered the fact for myself," laughed Lady Tanagra.

"Patricia wanted to tell you," continued Bowen. "She has often talked of you (Patricia felt sure Aunt Adelaide must hear her start of surprise); but I wanted to wait until we could go to you together and confess." Bowen smiled straight into his listener's eyes, a quiet, friendly smile that would have disarmed a gorgon.

For a few moments there was silence. Miss Brent was thinking, thinking as a judge thinks who is about to deliver sentence.

"And Lady Meyfield, does she know?" she enquired.

Without giving Bowen a chance to reply Lady Tanagra rushed in as if fearful that he might make a false move.

"That is another of Peter's follies, keeping it from mother. He argued that if the engagement were officially announced, the family would take up all Patricia's time, and he would see nothing of her. Oh! Peter's very selfish sometimes, I am to say; but," she added with inspiration, "every thing will have to come out now."

"Of course!" Patricia started at the decision in Miss Brent's tone.

She looked across at Bowen, who was regarding Lady Tanagra with an admiration that amounted almost to reverence. As he looked up Patricia's eyes fell. What was happening to her? She was getting further into the net woven by her own folly. Lady Tanagra was getting them out of the tangle into which they had got themselves; but was she not involving them in a worse? Patricia knew her aunt, Lady Tanagra did not. Therein lay the key to the whole situation.

Miss Brent rose to go. Patricia saw that judgment was to be deferred.

She shook hands with Lady Tanagra and Bowen and, finally, turning to Patricia said:

"I think, Patricia, that you have been very indiscreet in not taking me into your confidence, your sole surviving relative," and with that she went, having refused Lady Tanagra's offer to drive her to her hotel, pleading that she had another call to make.

When Bowen returned from seeing Miss Brent into a taxi, the three culprits regarded each other. All felt that they had come under the ban of Miss Brent's displeasure. It was Lady Tanagra who broke the silence.

"Well, we're all in it now up to the neck," she laughed.

Bowen smiled happily; but Patricia looked alarmed. Lady Tanagra went over to her and bending down kissed her lightly on the cheek. Patricia looked up, and Bowen saw that her eyes were suspiciously moist. With a murmured apology about a note he was expecting he left the room.

That night the three dined at the Quadrant, "to get to know each other," as Lady Tanagra said. When Patricia reached Galvin House, having refused to allow Bowen to see her home, she was conscious of having spent another happy evening.

"Up to the neck in it," she murmured as she tossed back her hair and began to brush it for the night, "over the top of our heads, I should say."

CHAPTER X

MISS BRENT'S STRATEGY

Having become reconciled to what she regarded as Patricia's matrimonial plans, although strongly disapproving of her deplorable flippancy, Miss Brent decided that her niece's position must be established in the eyes of her prospective relatives-in-law.

Miss Brent was proud of her family, but still prouder of the fact that the founder had come over with that extremely dubious collection of notables introduced into England by William of Normandy. To Miss Brent, William the Conqueror was what _The Mayflower_ is to all ambitious Americans--a social jumping-off point. There were no army lists in 1066, or pa.s.sengers' lists in 1620.

No one could say with any degree of certainty what it was that Geoffrey Brent did for, or knew about, his ducal master; but it was sufficiently important to gain for him a grant of lands, which he had no more right to occupy than the Norman had to bestow.

After careful thought Miss Brent had decided upon her line of operations. Geoffrey Brent was to be used as a corrective to Patricia's occupation. No family, Miss Brent argued, could be expected to welcome with open arms a girl who earned her living as the secretary of an unknown member of parliament. She foresaw complications, fierce opposition, possibly an attempt to break off the engagement. To defeat this Geoffrey Brent was to be disinterred and flung into the conflict, and Patricia was to owe to her aunt the happiness that was to be hers.

Incidentally Miss Brent saw in this circ.u.mstance a very useful foundation upon which to build for herself a position in the future.

Miss Brent had made up her mind upon two points. One that she would call upon Lady Meyfield, the other that Patricia's engagement must be announced. Debrett told her all she wanted to know about the Bowens, and she strongly disapproved of what she termed "hole-in-the-corner engagements." The marriage of a Brent to a Bowen was to her an alliance, carrying with it certain social responsibilities, consequently Society must be advised of what was impending. Romance was a by-product that did not concern either Miss Brent or Society.

Purpose and decision were to Miss Brent what wings and tail are to the swallow: they propelled and directed her. Her mind once made up, to change it would have appeared to Miss Brent an unpardonable sign of weakness. Circ.u.mstances might alter, thrones totter, but Miss Brent's decisions would remain unshaken.

On the day following her meeting with Lady Tanagra and Bowen, Miss Brent did three things. She transferred to "The Mayfair Hotel" for one night, she prepared an announcement of the engagement for _The Morning Post_, and she set out to call upon Lady Meyfield in Grosvenor Square.

The transference to "The Mayfair Hotel" served a double purpose. It would impress the people at the newspaper office, and it would also show that Patricia's kinswoman was of some importance.

As Patricia was tapping out upon a typewriter the halting eloquence of Mr. Arthur Bonsor, Miss Brent was being whirled in a taxi first to the office of _The Morning Post_ and then on to Grosvenor Square.

"I fully appreciate," tapped Patricia with wandering attention, "the national importance of pigs."

"Miss Brent!" announced Lady Meyfield's butler.

Miss Brent found herself gazing into a pair of violet eyes that were smiling a greeting out of a gentle face framed in white hair.