The four met in her Grace’s boudoir, and the Duke began by declaring that all this was very sad. Lord Augustus shook his head and put his hands in his trousers pockets—which was as much as to say that his feelings as a British parent were almost too strong for him. “Your mother and I think, that something ought to be done,” said the Duke turning to his son.
“Something ought to be done,” said Lord Mistletoe.
“They won’t let a fellow go out with a fellow now,” said Lord Augustus.
“Heaven forbid!” said the Duchess, raising both her hands.
“I was thinking, Mistletoe, that your mother might have met Lady Penwether.”
“What could I do with Lady Penwether, Duke? Or what could she do with him? A man won’t care for what his sister says to him. And I don’t suppose she’d undertake to speak to Lord Rufford on the subject.”
“Lady Penwether is an honourable and an accomplished woman.”
“I dare say;—though she gives herself abominable airs.”
“Of course, if you don’t like it, my dear, it shan’t be pressed.”
“I thought, perhaps, you’d see him yourself,” said Lord Augustus, turning to his brother. “You’d carry more weight than anybody.”
“Of course I will if it be necessary; but it would be disagreeable—very disagreeable. The appeal should be made to his feelings, and that I think would better come through female influence. As far as I know the world a man is always more prone to be led in such matters by a woman than by another man.”
“If you mean me,” said the Duchess, “I don’t think I could see him. Of course, Augustus, I don’t wish to say anything hard of Arabella. The fact that we have all met here to take her part will prove that, I think. But I didn’t quite approve of all that was done here.”
Lord Augustus stroked his beard and looked out of the window. “I don’t think, my dear, we need go into that just now,” said the Duke.
“Not at all,” said the Duchess, “and I don’t intend to say a word. Only if I were to meet Lord Rufford he might refer to things which—which—which—. In point of fact I had rather not.”
“I might see him,” suggested Lord Mistletoe.
“No doubt that might be done with advantage,” said the Duke.
“Only that, as he is my senior in age, what I might say to him would lack that weight which any observations which might be made on such a matter should carry with them.”
“He didn’t care a straw for me,” said Lord Augustus.
“And then,” continued Lord Mistletoe, “I so completely agree with what my father says as to the advantage of female influence! With a man of Lord Rufford’s temperament female influence is everything. If my aunt were to try it?” Lord Augustus blew the breath out of his mouth and raised his eyebrows. Knowing what he did of his wife, or thinking that he knew what he did, he did not conceive it possible that a worse messenger should be chosen. He had known himself to be a very bad one, but he did honestly believe her to be even less fitted for the task than he himself. But he said nothing—simply wishing that he had not left his whist for such a purpose as this.
“Perhaps Lady Augustus had better see him,” said the Duke. The Duchess, who did not love hypocrisy, would not actually assent to this, but she said nothing. “I suppose my sister-in-law would not object, Augustus?”
“G⸺ Almighty only knows,” said the younger brother. The Duchess, grievously offended by the impropriety of this language, drew herself up haughtily.
“Perhaps you would not mind suggesting it to her, sir,” said Lord Mistletoe.
“I could do that by letter,” said the Duke.
“And when she has assented, as of course she will, then perhaps you wouldn’t mind writing a line to him to make an appointment. If you were to do so he could not refuse.” To this proposition the Duke returned no immediate answer; but looked at it round and round carefully. At last, however, he acceded to this also, and so the matter was arranged. All these influential members of the ducal family met together at the ducal mansion on Arabella’s behalf, and settled their difficulty by deputing the work of bearding the lion, of tying the bell on the cat, to an absent lady whom they all despised and disliked.
That afternoon the Duke, with the assistance of his son, who was a great writer of letters, prepared an epistle to his sister-in-law and another to Lord Rufford, which was to be sent as soon as Lady Augusta had agreed to the arrangement. In the former letter a good deal was said as to a mother’s solicitude for her daughter. It had been felt, the letter said, that no one could speak for a daughter so well as a mother;—that no other’s words would so surely reach the heart of a man who was not all evil but who was tempted by the surroundings of the world to do evil in this particular case. The letter began “My dear sister-in-law,” and ended “Your affectionate brother-in-law, Mayfair,” and was in fact the first letter that the Duke had ever written to his brother’s wife. The other letter was more difficult, but it was accomplished at last, and confined itself to a request that Lord Rufford would meet Lady Augustus Trefoil at a place and at a time, both of which were for the present left blank.
On the Monday Lord Augustus and Lord Mistletoe were driven to the station in the same carriage, and on this occasion the uncle said a few strong words to his nephew on the subject. Lord Augustus, though perhaps a coward in the presence of his brother, was not so with other members of the family. “It may be very well you know, but it’s all d⸺ nonsense.”
“I’m
