“Of course, ma’am, they did not know that you were at Bragton, as you were not in the carriage at the ‘meet.’ ”
“That’s nonsense, John. Did Lord Rufford suppose that you were entertaining ladies here without someone to be mistress of the house? Of course he knew that I was here. I shouldn’t have gone;—you may be sure of that. I’m not in the habit of going to the houses of people I don’t know. Indeed I think it’s an impertinence in them to ask in that way. I’m surprised that you would go on such an invitation.”
“The Trefoils knew them.”
“If Lady Penwether knew them why could not Lady Penwether ask them independently of us? I don’t believe they ever spoke to Lady Penwether in their lives. Lord Rufford and Miss Trefoil may very likely be London acquaintances. He may admire her and therefore choose to have her at his ball. I know nothing about that. As far as I am concerned he’s quite welcome to keep her.”
All this was not very pleasant to John Morton. He knew already that his grandmother and Lady Augustus hated each other, and said spiteful things not only behind each other’s backs, but openly to each other’s faces. But now he had been told by the girl who was engaged to be his wife that she did not belong to him; and by his grandmother—who stood to him in the place of his mother—that she wished that this girl belonged to someone else! He was not quite sure that he did not wish it himself. But, even were it to be so, and should there be reason for him to be gratified at the escape, still he did not relish the idea of taking the girl himself to the other man’s house. He wrote the letter, however, and dispatched it. But even the writing of it was difficult and disagreeable. When various details of hospitality have been offered by a comparative stranger a man hardly likes to accept them all. But in this case he had to do it. He would be delighted, he said, to stay at Rufford Hall from the Monday to the Wednesday;—Lady Augustus and Miss Trefoil would also be delighted;—and so also would Mr. Gotobed be delighted. And Miss Trefoil would be further delighted to accept Lord Rufford’s offer of a horse for the Tuesday. As for himself, if he rode at all, a horse would come for him to the meet. Then he wrote another note to Mr. Harry Stubbings, bespeaking a mount for the occasion.
On that evening the party at Bragton was not a very pleasant one. “No doubt you are intimate with Lady Penwether, Lady Augustus,” said Mrs. Morton. Now Lady Penwether was a very fashionable woman whom to know was considered an honour.
“What makes you ask, ma’am?” said Lady Augustus.
“Only as you were taking your daughter to her brother’s house, and as he is a bachelor.”
“My dear Mrs. Morton, really you may leave me to take care of myself and of my daughter too. You have lived so much out of the world for the last thirty years that it is quite amusing.”
“There are some persons’ worlds that it is a great deal better for a lady to be out of,” said Mrs. Morton. Then Lady Augustus put up her hands, and turned round, and affected to laugh, of all which things Mr. Gotobed, who was studying English society, made notes in his own mind.
“What sort of position does that man Goarly occupy here?” the Senator asked immediately after dinner.
“No position at all,” said Morton.
“Every man created holds some position as I take it. The land is his own.”
“He has I believe about fifty acres.”
“And yet he seems to be in the lowest depth of poverty and ignorance.”
“Of course he mismanages his property and probably drinks.”
“I dare say, Mr. Morton. He is proud of his rights, and talked of his father and his grandfather, and yet I doubt whether you would find a man so squalid and so ignorant in all the States. I suppose he is injured by having a lord so near him.”
“Quite the contrary if he would be amenable.”
“You mean if he would be a creature of the lord’s. And why was that other man so uncivil to me;—the man who was the lord’s gamekeeper?”
“Because you went there as a friend of Goarly.”
“And that’s his idea of English fair play?” asked the Senator with a jeer.
“The truth is, Mr. Gotobed,” said Morton endeavouring to explain it all, “you see a part only and not the whole. That man Goarly is a rascal.”
“So everybody says.”
“And why can’t you believe everybody?”
“So everybody says on the lord’s side. But before I’m done I’ll find out what people say on the other side. I can see that he is ignorant and squalid; but that very probably is the lord’s fault. It may be that he is a rascal and that the lord is to blame for that too. But if the lord’s pheasants have eaten up Goarly’s corn, the lord ought to pay for the corn whether Goarly be a rascal or not.” Then John Morton made up his mind that he would never ask another American Senator to his house.
XVIII
The Attorney’s Family Is Disturbed
On that Wednesday evening Mary Masters said nothing to any of
