‘Oh! Well – Well, thank you, sir! Only it would be better if you came with me yourself!’ urged Felix.
‘Better for whom?’ demanded his lordship involuntarily.
‘Me,’ replied Felix, with the utmost candour. ‘I daresay they would show you anything you wanted to see, on account of your being a – a second-best nobleman, which I know you are, because it says, in a book I found, that Marquises come directly after Dukes, so –’
But at this point his disgusted brother thrust him out of the room, pausing only, before following him, to offer Alverstoke a dignified apology for his childish want of conduct. As Lufra followed close on his heels, and Charis, bestowing a valedictory smile on Alverstoke, had already departed, the Marquis was left alone with his hostess.
She said thoughtfully: ‘As a matter of fact, I fancy it would be better if you took him to that place yourself. He is a very enterprising boy, you know, and there’s never any saying what he may take it into his head to do.’
‘Charles will know how to keep him in order,’ he replied indifferently.
She looked doubtful, but said no more. It was apparent to her that his lordship had fallen into a mood of abstraction. He was staring unseeingly at the opposite wall, an odd smile playing about the corners of his mouth. It grew, and he suddenly laughed, under his breath, saying: ‘By God, I’ll do it!’
‘Do what?’ demanded Frederica.
He had evidently forgotten her presence. Her voice brought his eyes round to her face, but instead of answering her he asked abruptly: ‘What are they doing here, those brothers of yours? They should be at school!’
‘Well, in some ways I think you may be right,’ she agreed. ‘Papa, however, never entertained the idea of sending any of his sons to school. He himself was educated at home, you know. That, of course, may not seem to you a very good reason for pursuing the same course with the boys – and, to own the truth, it doesn’t seem so to me either – but one ought not to be unjust, and it would be unjust to assume that poor Papa thought that his – his errors were due to his upbringing. And I don’t know that they were,’ she added reflectively. ‘The Merrivilles have always had a tendency towards volatility.’
‘Have they indeed?’ he returned, a satirical curl to his lips. ‘Is a tutor employed to instruct Jessamy and Felix, then?’
‘Oh, yes, scores of tutors!’ responded Miss Merriville. She perceived a startled look in his lordship’s eye, and hastened to reassure him. ‘Oh, not all at once! One after the other, you understand! You can’t think how vexatious! The thing is that if they are old the boys don’t like it, because they can’t enter into their sports; and if they are young they only want to stay for a month or two while they wait to take up a post in a school, or at one of the Universities, or some such thing. And, which is even more provoking, they always fall desperately in love with Charis!’
‘That I can readily believe.’
She nodded, but sighed also. ‘Yes, and the mischief is that she cannot bring herself to repulse them. She has a fatally tender heart, and can’t bear to give pain to anyone – particularly not to people like poor Mr Griff, who was very awkward, and shy, and had red hair, and an Adam’s apple which bobbed up and down in his throat. He was the last tutor. Just at present the boys are enjoying a holiday, but when they have seen all the sights in London, and have grown a little more accustomed, I must engage another tutor for them. But Jessamy is very good, and studies for two hours every day, because he is determined to go up to Oxford when he is eighteen, a year before Harry did.’
‘Is Harry at Oxford now?’
‘Yes, in his second year. Which is why it seemed to me to be just the moment to come to London for a year. It will do him a great deal of good to see something of the world before he is oblig
ed to settle down at Graynard, don’t you think? Besides, he will enjoy it excessively!’
‘I’ve no doubt he will,’ said Alverstoke. He looked down at her, a glint in his eyes. ‘Meanwhile, we have to consider your situation. I have the intention of giving a ball within the next few weeks, to mark the come-out of one of my nieces. You and your sister will appear at it, to be presented to the ton by my sister, and you will all of you doubtless receive invitations to attend a number of other such parties, to which my sister will escort you. Ah! and my cousin, Mrs Dauntry, who also has a daughter to bring out at my ball!’
Frederica’s lips quivered; mischief danced in her eyes; she said: ‘I am very much obliged to you! What a fortunate circumstance it was that Charis should have come home in time to make your acquaintance!’
‘Yes, wasn’t it?’ he retorted. ‘I might not otherwise have realised what a shocking thing it would be to keep such a diamond in the undistinguished shade!’
‘Exactly so! And nothing could be better than for her to appear at your ball. I am truly very grateful to you, but there is not the least necessity to invite me as well.’
‘Are you proposing to go into seclusion?’
‘No, but –’
‘Then there is every necessity for you to appear at my ball. I am strongly of the opinion, too, that your aunt should be prevailed upon to accompany you. Since you are not living under my sister’s roof, it would seem strangely particular if no respectable guardian were to be seen. Her eccentricity need not trouble you –’
‘It doesn’t!’ interjected Frederica.
‘– for eccentrics are all the rage,’ he continued.
‘Well, it wouldn’t trouble me if they were not. But I can’t help thinking that your sister may not agree to this scheme.’
The glint in his eyes became more pronounced. ‘She will!’ he said.
‘You can’t know that!’ Frederica argued.
‘Believe me, I do know it.’