The Wicked Marquis Part 45

"My duty lies here," Let.i.tia observed, with a little smile towards Grantham, who had just strolled up with Sylvia.

The d.u.c.h.ess rose to her feet.

"Dear me, yes!" she acquiesced. "You two had better go off and have a long country walk. If I sit for long after luncheon, I always go to sleep; so come along, Reginald, we'll beard the lion in his den."

The Marquis glanced towards Sylvia, but she shook her head.

"I must see after my unpacking," she said, "but I should very much like Mr. Thain to come. Do try to persuade him."

The d.u.c.h.ess and her brother strolled up the garden and out of the postern gate into the park.

"That's a terrible old man of yours, Reginald," the former observed, glancing over her shoulder. "I never came across such a person off the boards at Drury Lane."

"He is an infernal nuisance," the Marquis grumbled. "It seems absurd, but he gets on my nerves. Day by day, there he sits, wet or fine. You can't see his lips move, but you can always feel sure that he is hunting up choice bits of d.a.m.nation out of the Old Testament and hurling them across at me."

"I have come to the conclusion," his sister decided, "that he is out of his mind. An ignorant man who lives with one idea all his life is apt to lose his reason. He has never attempted any violence, has he?"

"Never," the Marquis replied, "but since you have mentioned it, Caroline, I always have a queer sensation when I am that side of the house. It is just about the distance to be picked off nicely with a rifle. I can't think why he doesn't do it--why he contents himself with abuse."

"I am going to consult Mr. Thain about him," his companion said. "A man of his robust common sense is much more likely to influence a lunatic like Vont than you or I.--So this is where our millionaire hermit is hidden," she went on, as they reached the gate. "Dear me, the place has changed!"

"It will soon be in order again," the Marquis observed. "Thain has a dozen men at work in the grounds, and he is having the rooms done up, one by one. He lives in the library, I think, and the bedroom over it."

They pa.s.sed through the plantation and into the gardens. Thain was there, talking to one of the workmen. He came to meet them with a somewhat forced smile of welcome upon his lips.

"This is very unexpected," he declared, as he shook hands. "I should have called upon you this afternoon, d.u.c.h.ess."

"I should think so!" she replied severely. "Will you be so good as to tell me at once what you mean by refusing my niece's invitation to dine?"

He hesitated for a moment, then he smiled. There was something very attractive about his visitor's frank directness of speech and manner.

"I refused," he admitted, glancing around to where the Marquis was engaged in conversation with a gardener, "because I didn't want to come."

"But I am there, you stupid person!" she reminded him. "You are invited to dine with me! I know you don't get on with Lady Let.i.tia, and I know you don't like large parties, but there are only half a dozen of us there, and I promise you my whole protection. Show me something at once. I want to talk to you. Those Dorothy Perkins roses will do, at the other end of the lawn."

He walked in silence by her side. She waited until they were well out of earshot.

"David Thain," she said, "have I shown an interest in you or have I not?"

"You have been extraordinarily kind," he confessed.

"And in return," she continued, "you have decided to avoid me. I won't have it. Are you afraid that I might want you to make love to me?"

He shook his head.

"I am sure you wouldn't find that amusing," he declared. "In the society of your s.e.x I generally behave pretty well as your brother would do if he were dumped down in an office in Wall Street."

"I honestly believe that you are diffident," she admitted. "I never met a millionaire before who was, and at first I thought it was a pose with you. Perhaps I was mistaken. You really don't think, then, that you have any attraction apart from your millions?"

"I'm quite sure that I haven't," he answered bitterly.

"A love affair!" she exclaimed, looking into his face scrutinisingly.

"And I knew nothing of it!--I, your sponsor, your lady confessor, your--well, heaven knows what I might not be if you would only behave decently! A love affair, indeed! That little yellow-haired chit, I suppose, who is down here raving about you all the time--Sylvia What's-her-name?"

He smiled.

"I know very little of Miss Sylvia Laycey," he said, "beyond the fact that she seems very charming."

"I suppose you ought to marry," she continued regretfully. "It seems a pity, but they'll never leave you alone till you do. What is your type, then? Sylvia Laycey is much too young for you. I suppose you know that."

"I don't think I have one," he answered.

"That's because I am married, of course," she went on. "If you were a sensible man, you would settle down to adore me and not think of anybody else at all. But you won't do it. You'll want to buy palaces and yachts and town houses and theatres, like all the rest of the superfluously rich, and you'll want a musical comedy star to wear your jewels, and a wife to entertain your friends."

"Well, you must admit that I haven't been in a hurry about any of these things yet," he observed.

She looked at him keenly.

"Look here, my young friend," she said, "you haven't made the one mistake I warned you against, have you? You haven't fallen in love with Let.i.tia?"

He laughed almost brutally.

"I am not quite such a fool as that," he a.s.sured her.

"Well, I should hope not," she enjoined severely. "Besides, as a matter of fact, Let.i.tia is engaged. Her young man is staying at Mandeleys now. Just answer me one question, David--why did you refuse that invitation to dinner?"

"Because I didn't feel like coming," he answered. "I thought it would probably be a large party, most of them neighbours, and every one would have to make an effort to entertain me because I am a stranger, and don't know their ways or anything about them."

"There you are again!" she exclaimed. "Just as sensitive as you can be, for all your millions! You'll come, David--please?"

"Of course I will, if you ask me like that," he a.s.sented.

She turned to her brother, who was approaching.

"Success!" she announced. "Mr. Thain has promised to dine. He refused under a misapprehension."

"We are delighted," the Marquis said. "At a quarter past eight, Mr.

Thain."

CHAPTER x.x.xI

Gossett in the country was a very different person from Gossett in Grosvenor Square. An intimate at Mandeleys was not at all the same thing as a caller in town, and David found himself welcomed that evening with a grave but confidential smile.

"The drawing-room here is closed for the present, sir," he observed, after he had superintended the bestowal of David's coat and hat upon an underling. "We are using the gallery on the left wing. If you will be so kind as to come this way."

David was escorted into a long and very lofty apartment, cut off from the hall by some wonderful curtains, obviously of another generation.