'Lord Silverbridge,' said Mr Boncassen, speaking a little through his nose, 'I am proud to make your acquaintance, sir. Your father is a man for whom we in our country have a great respect. I think, sir, you must be proud of such a father.'
'Oh yes,--no doubt,' said Silverbridge awkwardly. Then Mr Boncassen continued his discourse with the gentlemen around him. Upon this our friend turned to the young lady. 'Have you been long in England, Miss Boncassen?'
'Long enough to have heard about you and your father,' she said, speaking with no slightest twang.
'I hope you have not heard evil of me.'
'Well!'
'I'm sure you can't have heard much good.'
'I know you didn't win the Derby.'
'You've been long enough to hear that.'
'Do you suppose we don't interest ourselves about the Derby in New York? Why, when we arrived at Queenstown I was leaning over the taffrail so that I might ask the first man on board the tender whether the Prime Minister had won.'
'And he said he hadn't.'
'I can't conceive why you of all men should call your horse by such a name. If my father had been President of the United States, I don't think I'd call a horse President.'
'I didn't name the horse.'
'I'd have changed it. But is it not very impudent of me to be finding fault with you the first time I have ever met you? Shall you have a horse at Ascot?'
'There will be something going, I suppose. Nothing that I care about.' Lord Silverbridge had made up his mind that he would not go to the races with Tifto before the Leger. The Leger would be an affair of such moment as to demand his presence. After that should come the complete rupture between him and Tifto.
Then there was movement among the elders, and Lord Silverbridge soon found himself walking alone with Miss Boncassen. It seemed to her to be quite natural to do so, and there certainly was no reason why he should decline anything so pleasant. It was thus that he had intended to walk with Mabel Grex;--only as yet he had not found her. 'Oh, yes,' said Miss Boncassen, when they had been together about twenty minutes; 'we shall be here all the summer, and the fall, and all the winter. Indeed father means to read every book in the British Museum before he goes back.'
'He'll have something to do.'
'He reads by steam, and he has two or three young men with him to take it all down and make other books out of it;--just as you'll see a lady take a lace shawl and turn it all about till she has trimmed a petticoat with it. It is the same lace all through,--and so I tell father it's the same knowledge.'
'But he puts it where more people will find it.'
'The lady endeavours to do the same with the lace. That depends on whether people look up or down. Father however is a very learned man. You mustn't suppose that I am laughing at him. He is going to write a very learned book. Only everybody will be dead before it can be half finished.' They still went on together, and then he gave her his arm and took her into the place where the strawberries and cream were prepared. As he was going in he say Mabel Grex walking with Tregear, and she bowed to him pleasantly and playfully. 'Is that lady a great friend of yours?' asked Miss Boncassen.
'A very great friend indeed.'
'She is very beautiful.'
'And clever as well,--and good as gold.'
'Dear me! Do tell me who it is that owns all these qualities.'
'Lady Mabel Grex. She is daughter of Lord Grex. That man with her is my particular friend. His name is Frank Tregear, and they are cousins.'
'I am so glad they are cousins.'
'Why glad?'
'Because his being with her won't make you unhappy.'
'Supposing I was in love with her,--which I am not,--do you suppose it would make me jealous to see her with another man?'
'In our country it would not. A young lady may walk about with a young gentleman just as she might with another young lady; but I thought it was different here. Do you know, by judging English ways, I believe I am behaving very improperly in walking about with you so long. Ought I not to tell you to go away?'
'Pray do not.'
'As I am going to stay here so long I wish to behave well in English eyes.'
'People know who you are, and discount all that.'
'If the difference be very marked they do. For instance, I needn't wear a hideous long bit of cloth over my face in Constantinople because I am a woman. But when the discrepancies are small, then they have to be attended to. So I shan't walk about with you any more.'
'Oh yes you will,' said Silverbridge, who began to think that he liked walking about with Miss Boncassen.
'Certainly not. There is Mr Sprottle. He is father's Secretary. He will take me back.'
'Can not I take you back as well as Mr Sprottle?'
'Indeed no;--I am not going to monopolise such a man as you. Do you think that I don't understand that everybody will be making remarks upon that American girl who won't leave the son of the Duke of Omnium alone? There is your particular friend Lady Mabel, and here is my particular friend Mr Sprottle.'
'May I come and call?'
'Certainly. Father will only be too proud,--and I shall be prouder.
Mother will be the proudest of all. Mother very seldom goes out.
Till we get a house we at The Langham. Thank you, Mr Sprottle. I think we'll go and find father.'
