“Oh, when he sees the opportunity, he will say something to damp such ridiculous notions! Nothing very much, you know, but making light of the story! We need not concern ourselves, and I am sorry I spoke of it to you.”
With all her heart Arabella longed for the courage to confess the whole. She could not. Already Lady Bridlington was rambling on, complaining fretfully of Frederick’s unkindness, wondering what cause he had to suppose his mother ill-bred enough to have spread a false tale abroad, and wishing that his father were alive to give him one of his famous scolds. She said instead, in a subdued tone: “Is that why—why everyone has been so very polite to me, ma’am?”
“Certainly not!” said Lady Bridlington emphatically. “You must have perceived, my love, how many, many friends I have in London, and you may believe they accepted you out of compliment to me! Not that I mean to say —But before you were at all known, naturally it was my sponsorship that started you in the right way.” She patted Arabella’s hand consolingly. “Then, you know, you are so bright, and pretty, that I am sure it is no wonder that you are so much sought-after. And above all, Arabella, we must remember that the world always follows what is seen to be the mode, and Mr. Beaumaris has made you the fashion by singling you out, even driving you in his phaeton, which is an honour indeed, I can tell you!”
Arabella’s head was still bowed. “Does—does Lord Bridlington mean to tell everyone that I—that I have no fortune at all, ma’am?”
“Good gracious, no, child! That would be a fatal thing to do, and I hope he would have more sense! He will merely say it has been greatly exaggerated—enough lo frighten away the fortune hunters, but what will not weigh with an honest man! Do not give it another thought!”
Arabella was unable to obey this injunction. It was long before she could think of anything else. Her impulse was to fly from London, back to Heythram, but hardly had she reached the stage of calculating whether she still possessed enough money to pay her fare on the first coach than all the difficulties attached to such a precipitate retreat presented themselves to her. They were insuperable. She could not bring herself to confess to Lady Bridlington that her own was the wicked, ill-bred tongue accountable for the rumour, nor could she think of any excuse for returning to Yorkshire. Still less could she face the necessity of telling Papa and Mama of her shocking behaviour. She must remain in Park Street until the season came to an end, and if Mama was sadly disappointed at the failure of her schemes, at least Papa would never blame his daughter for returning to her home unbetrothed. She perceived clearly that unless something very wonderful were to happen this must be so, and felt herself guilty indeed.
Not for several hours did her mind recover its tone, but she was both young and optimistic, and after a hearty burst of tears, followed by a period of quiet reflection, she began insensibly to be more hopeful. Something would happen to unravel her difficulties; the odious Frederick would scotch the rumour; people would gradually grow to realize that they had been mistaken. Mr. Beaumaris and Lord Fleetwood would no doubt write her down as a vulgar, boasting miss, but she must hope that they had not actually told everyone that it was she who had been responsible for the rumour. Meanwhile there was nothing to be done but to behave as though nothing were the matter. This, to a naturally buoyant spirit was not so hard a task as might have been supposed: London was offering too much to Arabella for her to be long cast-down. She might fancy all her pleasure destroyed, but she would have been a very extraordinary young woman who could have remembered her difficulties while cards and floral offerings were left every day at the house; while invitations poured in to every form of entertainment known to ingenious hostesses: while every gentleman was eager to claim her hand for the dance; while Mr. Beaumaris took her driving in the Park behind his match-grays, and every other young lady gazed enviously after her. Whatever the cause, social success was sweet; and since Arabella was a very human girl she could not help enjoying every moment of it.
She expected to see some considerable diminution in her court once Lord Bridlington had let it be known that her fortune had been grossly exaggerated, and braced herself to bear this humiliation. But although she knew from Lady Bridlington that Frederick had faithfully performed his part, still the invitations came in, and still the unattached gentlemen clustered round her. She took fresh heart, glad to find that fashionable people were not, after all, so mercenary as she had been led to think. Neither she nor Frederick had the smallest inkling of the true state of affairs: she because she was too unsophisticated; Frederick because it had never yet occurred to him that anyone could doubt what he said. But he might as well have spared his breath on this occasion. Even Mr. Warkworth, a charitably-minded gentleman, shook his head over it, and remarked to Sir Geoffrey Morecambe that Bridlington was doing it rather too brown,
“Just what I was thinking myself,” agreed Sir Geoffrey, scrutinizing his neck-tie in the mirror with a dissatisfied eye. “Shabby, I call it. Do you think this way I have tied my cravat has something of the look of the Nonpareil’s new style?”
Mr. Warkworth directed a long, dispassionate stare at it. “No,” he said simply.
“No, no more do I,” said Sir Geoffrey, said but unsurprised. “I wonder what he calls it? It ain’t precisely a Mail-coach, and it certainly ain’t an Osbaldeston, and though I did think it had something of the look of a
Mr. Warkworth, whose mind had wandered from this vital subject, said, with a frown: “Damn it, it is shabby! You’re right!”
Sir Geoffrey was a little hurt. “Would you say it was as bad as that, Oswald?”
“I would,” stated Mr. Warkworth. “In fact, the more I think of it the worse it appears to me!”
Sir Geoffrey looked intently at his own image, and sighed. “Yes, it does. I shall have to go home and change it.”
“Eh?” said Mr. Warkworth, puzzled. “Change what?
Good God, dear boy, I wasn’t talking about your neck-tie! Wouldn’t dream of saying such a thing to my worst enemy! Bridlington!”
“Oh, him!” said Sir Geoffrey, relieved. “He’s a gudgeon!”
“Oughtn’t to be gudgeon enough to think everyone else is one. Tell you what: wouldn’t do him any good if he did hoax everybody with the bag of moonshine! She’s a devilish fine girl, the little Tallant, and if you ask me she wouldn’t have him if he were the only man to offer for her.”
“You can’t expect him to know that,” said Sir Geoffrey. “I shouldn’t wonder if he hasn’t a suspicion he’s a dead bore: in fact, he can’t have! Stands to reason: wouldn’t prose on as he does, if he knew it!”
Mr. Warkworth thought this over. “No,” he pronounced at last. “You’re wrong. If he don’t know he’s a dead bore, why does he want to frighten off everyone else? Havey-cavey sort of a business: don’t like it! a man ought to fight fair.”
“It ain’t that,” replied Sir Geoffrey. “Just remembered something: the little Tallant don’t want it to be known she’s as rich as a Nabob. Fleetwood told me: tired of being courted for her money. They were all after her in the north.”
“Oh!” said Mr. Warkworth. He asked with vague interest: “Where does she come from?”
“Somewhere up north: Yorkshire, I believe,” said Sir Geoffrey, inserting a cautious finger into one of the folds of his neck-tie, and easing it a trifle. “I wonder if that’s better?”
“Well, that’s a queer thing. Saw Clayton the other day. He comes from Yorkshire, and he don’t know the Tallant.”
“No, and Withernsea don’t either. Mind you, I won’t swear it was Yorkshire! Might have been one of those other devilish rural places—Northumberland, or something. Know what I think?”
“No,” said Mr. Warkworth.
“Shouldn’t be surprised if she’s the daughter of some merchant or other, which would account for it”
Mr. Warkworth looked shocked. “No, really, dear old boy! Nothing of that sort about the girl! Never heard her utter a word that smelled of the shop!”
“Granddaughter, then,” said Sir Geoffrey, stretching a point. “Pity, if I’m right, but I’ll tell you one thing, Oswald! I wouldn’t let it weigh with me.”
Upon consideration, Mr. Warkworth decided that he would not either.
Since these views were fairly representative, Arabella was not destined to suffer the mortification of seeing her usual gallants hang back when next she attended the Assembly at Almack’s. Lord Bridlington was escorting his mother and her guest, for besides being very correct in such matters, he liked Almack’s, and approved of the
