Faro's Daughter Read online

  `Besides, Deb, what are we to do with the girl if her parents don't relent?’ she asked reasonably.

  Miss Grantham's eyes danced. `Well, dear ma'am, I have a little plan of my own for Phoebe's future,' she said.

  Lady Bellingham looked at her uneasily. `I don't trust you, Deb. I know you have some dreadful scheme in your head when you look like that! What am I to say if Lady Laxton comes here demanding her daughter?'

  `Dearest Aunt Lizzie, this must surely be the last house in London where Lady Laxton would think of looking for her daughter! While she remains with us, by the way, she is to be known as Miss Smith, in case the servants should talk.'

  `Yes, but how long is she to remain with us?' asked her ladyship. `If it is not just like you, Deb, to fill the house with guests when there is no money to pay the coal-bill! And poor Kit is coming next week besides! We shall be ruined! And I must tell you that Ormskirk was here last night, and when he asked me where you were I declare I hardly knew how to answer him. But I dare say he guessed, for he said in a very dry voice that he saw Mablethorpe was absent too. Oh dear, what a tangle we are in, my love, and you making it so much the worse with all this nonsense about Miss Laxton, let alone enraging Ravenscar, and behaving so abominably at Vauxhall that I declare I feel quite ashamed to own you! Where is this girl?'

  Miss Grantham then offered to fetch Phoebe for inspection. Lady Bellingham said that she had no wish to see her, but if she were to be compelled to house her for the rest of her life, as she had little doubt would turn out to be the case, she supposed she had better make her acquaintance. So Miss Laxton was brought into her hostess's room, clutching one of Deborah's wrappers round her small person, and Lady Bellingham said that she understood nothing, but Deborah had better put on her hat at once, and go out to buy the poor child something to wear and, as for Filey's thinking that he would be permitted to gobble up such a morsel as that, it would give her much pleasure to be able to bestow a piece of her mind upon him, which she very likely would do, one fine day, for she was sure he was a disagreeable creature with a bad heart, and she had never liked him, no, not from the start!

  This rambling speech gave Miss Grantham to understand that her aunt was resigned to the unexpected addition to her household, so she kissed that long-suffering lady's cheek, and went off to replenish Phoebe's wardrobe. By noon, Phoebe, dressed in pale blue muslin, was able to emerge from the seclusion of her bedchamber; and when Lord Mablethorpe arrived to pay his promised call, she was sitting with Deborah in the small back-parlour half-way up the stairs.

  Lord Mablethorpe heartily approved of Deborah's plan to keep Phoebe in St James's Square

  , and he could not help feeling rather flattered by her dependence on his judgement. She made him feel quite old, and responsible, and by the time he had endorsed all his Deborah's suggestions, he was in a fair way to believing that he had thought of them for himself. He helped to draft a suitable letter to Lord and Lady Laxton, which Phoebe copied out in her best copyplate handwriting, and he said that he would give a monkey to see their faces when they received it. This made their undutiful daughter giggle. His lordship then asked if it were true that the Honourable Arnold Laxton had been rolled-up at Epsom, and Miss Laxton said, yes, it was all so dreadful because Arnold always backed horses which fell down, or crossed their legs, and that was why it was so important that she should make a good match. This exchange led to others and, since both lived in the same circle, and knew very much the same people, it was not many minutes before they were on the most comfortable terms, pulling most of their relatives' characters to shreds, and laughing a great deal over the business.

  Lady Bellingham, coming into the room presently, and seeing her niece sewing quietly by the window, while, on the sofa, Lord Mablethorpe and Miss Laxton had their heads close together, was quite dismayed. She seized the earliest opportunity of warning her niece that if she did not take care she would lose Mablethorpe as well as the twenty thousand pounds she had so recklessly refused.

  `Well, I don't want Mablethorpe,' said Miss Grantham, maddeningly placid. `I think it would be a charming thing if he were to fall out of love with me, and into love with Phoebe.'

  `It might be a very charming thing if we had twenty thousand pounds,' said Lady Bellingham, with strong common sense. `When we have nothing but debts, it is a disaster! Do you know, my love, I have been trying to add up my accounts, and do what I will I cannot alter the truth! We lost seven thousand pounds last year by bad debts!'

  `I dare say we might have,' said Miss Grantham. `It all comes of letting people run upon tick at the faro-table. I knew we ought not to do it.'

  `Everything is so difficult!' sighed her ladyship. `No one can feel more conscious of the awkwardness of your situation than I, Deb, but if Ravenscar were to make his offer again, which I dare say he will, if you behaved as badly as you tell me you did, do you think you might-'

  `No,' said Miss Grantham resolutely. `Nothing would induce me to accept a farthing from that man! Besides, he assured me his offer was no longer open to my acceptance, and I am convinced he meant it. I think he is going to try to worst me by some other means.'

  `Good heavens!’ cried her ladyship, aghast. `Never say so, my love! He might set about to ruin us! He would be the most dangerous enemy!'

  `So am I a dangerous enemy,' retorted Miss Grantham. `He will soon find that out! Whatever he does, I shall counter with something worse.'

  Lady Bellingham moaned, and tottered to her dressing table to fortify herself with hartshorn-and-water. Her hand shook quite pitiably as she poured the drops into her glass, and she again gave it as her opinion that her niece was mad. `Some dreadful fate will befall us!' she prophesied. `I know it. It is flying in the face of Providence to throw everything to the winds, as you are bent on doing! And I will tell you something else, Deb, though I dare say you won't care for that any more than for the rest. It is all over town that Ormskirk is done-up. Beverley told me last night that he had had some deep doings these last months, and the cards running against him five nights out of seven. And we know how badly that odious horse of his did at Newmarket! Ten to one, he will call in that mortgage, for you know his estates are entailed! And all you will do is to talk of countering Ravenscar! The very man you should have made a push to turn into a friend instead of an enemy!'

  `I make a friend of that man?' exclaimed Miss Grantham, flushing hotly. `I will starve rather!’

  `Very well, my love, I am sure I do not wish to interfere with you, but I don't want to starve!' said her ladyship indignantly.

  `I won't let you, ma'am. If we were to be faced with that, I would - I would make a bargain with Ormskirk! I would do anything rather than be beholden to Ravenscar!’

  `Well, if you would do anything, you had better send that Laxton child home, and make sure of Mablethorpe.'

  `Oh, poor Adrian, no!' said Miss Grantham quickly.

  Lady Bellingham sank into a chair, and closed her eyes. `Go away!' she begged faintly. `I shall have the vapours in a minute!'

  Miss Grantham laughed. `Oh, there are a dozen things we might do to be saved! Lucius was talking of going to Hanover the other day, and trying his fortune there. What do you say to our closing this house, and running off with him?'

  `Now I am going to have the vapours!’ said Lady Bellingham, with conviction.

  `Only I won't leave England until I have settled my score with Ravenscar,' said Miss Grantham, a sparkle in her eyes. `I wish I knew what he means to do next!’

  `If it would bring you to your senses, I wish you might know!' said her aunt. `I dare say it would kill me, but you will not care for that!'

  But a knowledge of Mr Ravenscar's activities that morning would scarcely have occasioned Lady Bellingham any great discomfort of mind. Mr Ravenscar had gone to White's Club.

  He was a member of several clubs, but Brooks's was known to be his favourite, so that some surprise was felt at his appearance at White's. The porter told him that he had become quite a strang