The Quiet Gentleman

used to invite him, and his lady, to dine with us from time to time. His daughter is quite a favourite with me; a delightful girl!'

At this point, the eyes of the half-brothers met. The Earl was able to command his features, but Martin choked over a mouthful of cold beef. The Dowager said indulgently: 'I do not assert that she is beautiful, but she is a very pretty-behaved young female, and one that will do very well for poor Theo. I have a great regard for Theo, and I should be happy to see him comfortably established.'

'Where,' asked Gervase, with only the slightest tremor in his voice, 'is Miss Morville now? She does not care for a nuncheon?'

'The dear child has walked through the Park to Gilbourne House,' answered the Dowager. 'A letter from her Mama desired her to forward some small matters to Gretta Hall, for she and Mr. Morville, you must know, are spending a few days as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Southey— the Laureate, I need scarcely remind you. I believe he and Mr. Morville were once intimate, but Mr. Southey, one is thankful to say, has long since abandoned those Revolutionary tendencies which must, previously, have rendered him quite ineligible for the distinguished position which he now adorns. The Curse of Kebama! His Life of Nelson! I am no great reader myself, but I am sure I must have heard the late lord speak favourably of these works I daresay a dozen times!'

'We must certainly invite him to dinner,' murmured Gervase.

'I believe it will be proper for us to do so,' acknowledged the Dowager. 'His brother, Sir James Morville, is a distinguished man; and they are related, one must remember, to the Minchinhamptons. We must wait, however, to see whether a suitable party may be arranged, though, to be sure, I have no doubt that we might, if we chose, arrange a dozen such! I should not think it marvellous if we were to receive as many as fifty visits from our neighbours this sennight.'

'I sincerely trust you may be wrong, ma'am!' said Gervase.

The next few days, however, showed that the Dowager had not misjudged the civility, or the curiosity, of the neighbouring gentry. Chaises, barouches, curricles, and even, when old Lady Wintringham decided that it behoved her to leave cards upon the new Earl, an antiquated coach bowled up the avenue to the imposing front-doors of Stanyon, and set down passengers dressed in all the finery of silk and velvet, or the natty elegance of yellow pantaloons and best Bath suiting. The Earl found most of his visitors as tedious as they were well-disposed; and, after enduring three consecutive days of almost continuous civilities, the sight of a carriage drawing up under his window was enough to send him stealthily down one of the secondary staircases to a vestibule whence it was possible for him to escape from the Castle, into the Fountain Court. From here it was an easy matter for him to reach the stables without being intercepted by an over-zealous servant; and while the Dowager entertained the morning-guests with one of her powerful monologues, her undutiful stepson was enjoying a gallop on the back of his gray horse, Cloud, having speedily put several miles between himself and the Castle.

He had already, once or twice, ridden out with his cousin, and the bailiff, but his way led him on this occasion in a direction hitherto unvisited by him. It was a fine day towards the close of March, the ground rather heavy from recent rains, but fast drying under a strong wind, blowing from the east. The hedgerows were bursting into new leaf, and the banks were starred with primroses. The Earl, having, as he would have said, galloped the fidgets out of Cloud, was hacking gently down a narrow lane when he came, round a bend, upon an unexpected sight. A lady was seated on the bank, engaged in gathering primroses from a clump within her reach. This in itself, however imprudent in such damp and blustery weather, would not have attracted more than the Earl's fleeting attention had he not perceived that the lady was attired in a riding-habit. Here, plainly, was an equestrienne in distress. He brought Cloud trotting up and caused him to halt alongside her.

The lady had lifted her head at the first sound of Cloud's hooves, and Gervase, raising his beaver, found himself looking down into a charming, wilful countenance, framed by the sweep of a hat-brim, and a cascade of pale, wind-tossed ringlets. A pair of large blue eyes, lighter and merrier than his own, met his with a rueful twinkle; a roguish dimple hovered at the corner of a kissable mouth striving unavailingly to preserve its gravity.

'I beg your pardon!' Gervase said, his gaze riveted on the fair face upturned to his. 'Can I be of assistance, ma'am? Some accident, I apprehend! Your horse—?'

He dismounted, as he spoke, and pulled the bridle over Cloud's head. The fair Diana broke into a ripple of laughter. 'Depend upon it, the horrid creature is by now standing snugly in her stall! Was ever anything so vexatious? Papa will so roast me for parting company at such a paltry fence! Only the mare pecked, you know, and over her head I went, and perhaps I was foolish, or perhaps I was stunned—shall I declare that I was stunned?—and I released the bridle. You would have thought, after all the carrots and the sugar I have bestowed on her, that Fairy would have come to me when I coaxed her! But no! Off she set, thinking of nothing but her comfortable stable, I daresay!'

'Ungrateful indeed!' Gervase said, laughing. 'But you must not sit upon that bank, ma'am, perhaps catching your death of cold! Is your home far distant?'

'No, oh, no! But to be walking through the village in my muddied habit, advertising my folly to the countryside—! You will allow it to be unthinkable, my lord!'

'You know me, then, ma'am? But we have not previously met, I think—I am sure! I could not have forgotten!'

'Oh, no! But a stranger in this desert: one dressed, moreover, in the first style of elegance! I could be in no doubt. You are—you must be—Lord St. Erth!'

'I am St. Erth. And you, ma'am? How comes it about that this is our first encounter?'

She replied, with the most enchanting primming of her face, wholly belied by the mischievous look in her eyes: 'Why, you must understand that one would not wish to appear pushing, by too early a visit, nor uncivil, by too late a one! Mama has formed the intention that Papa shall pay a morning-call at Stanyon next week!'

He was very much amused, and said: 'I could not receive that morning-call too early, I assure you! It will be quite unnecessary, however, for Papa to be put to the trouble of a formal visit, for I shall forestall him. If I were to lift you on to Cloud's back, ma'am, will you permit me to lead him to your home?'

She jumped down from the bank, catching up the skirt of her voluminous habit, and casting it over her arm. 'Oh, yes! Will you do that? I shall be so very much obliged to you!'

On her feet, she was seen to be a slim creature, not above the average height, but exquisitely proportioned. Her movements, though impetuous, were graceful, and the Earl was permitted a glimpse of a neatly-turned ankle. She tucked her primroses into the buttonhole of her coat, where, mingling with her curls, they seemed almost exactly to blend with them. The Earl lifted her on to the saddle; she contrived to arrange one leg over the pommel, and declared herself to be perfectly safely established.

'Now, where am I to take you?' asked Gervase, smiling up at her.

'To Whissenhurst Grange, if you please! It is only a mile from where we stand, so you will not be obliged to trudge so very far!'

'I should be glad if it were twice as far. But did you mean to sit upon that bank for ever, ma'am?'

'Oh, they would have found me in a little while!' she said airily. 'When Fairy reached the stables, you know, they would be thrown into such a pucker! I daresay everyone may already be searching the countryside for me.'

She spoke with all the unconcern of a spoiled child; and it was easy for him to guess that she must be the pet of her father's establishment. With some shrewdness he asked her if her parents were aware of her riding out without a groom, and glanced quizzically up in time to see her pouting prettily.

'Oh, well, there can be no objection, after all, in the country! In town, of course, I could not do so. If only I had not jumped that wretched little hedge! Nothing was ever so mortifying! Indeed, I am not in the habit of tumbling off my horse, Lord St. Erth!'

'Why, the best of riders must take a toss or two!' he reassured her. 'It was used to be said of the Master of the Quorn, when I was living at Stanyon previously, that he would have as many as fifty falls in a season!'

'Ah, you are talking of Mr. Assheton Smith, I collect! His name, you must know, is for ever on the tongues of the Melton men! You must have heard your brother deplore his leaving Quorndon Hall, I daresay! This has been his last season with the Quorn: he is coming into Lincolnshire, to hunt the Burton, and that will put him many miles beyond poor Martin's reach!'