The Convenient Marriage Read online

  ‘Arnold will tell you, my dear, that I am never busy,’ he replied.

  ‘W-well, could you spare me a m-moment of your time n-now?’ Horatia said.

  ‘As many as you desire,’ he said, and held open the door for her to pass out. ‘Shall we go into the library, ma’am?’

  ‘I d-don’t mind where we go,’ said Horatia in a small voice. ‘But I want to be p-private with you.’

  ‘My dear, this is very flattering,’ he said.

  ‘It isn’t,’ replied Horatia mournfully. She went into the library, and watched him shut the door. ‘I want to be p-private because there is something I m-must tell you.’

  The veriest hint of surprise flickered for an instant in his eyes; he looked at her for a moment, rather searchingly, she thought. Then he moved forward. ‘But won’t you sit down, Horry?’

  She stayed where she was, her hands gripping the back of a chair. ‘No, I think I’ll s-stand,’ she answered. ‘M-Marcus, I had better tell you at once that I’ve done something d-dreadful!’

  At that a smile quivered at the corners of his mouth. ‘I’m prepared for the worst, then.’

  ‘I assure you, it isn’t f-funny,’ said Horatia tragically. ‘In f-fact, I’m afraid you will be amazingly angry, and I m-must own,’ she added in a rush of candour, ‘I d-deserve it, even if you beat me with that whip, only I d-do hope you won’t, M-Marcus.’

  ‘I can safely promise you that I won’t,’ said the Earl, laying both whip and gloves down on the table. ‘Come, Horry, what is the matter?’

  She began to trace the pattern of the chair-back with one finger. ‘Well, I – w-well, you see, I – M-Marcus, did they give you my m-message last night?’ She raised her eyes fleetingly, and saw him gravely watching her. ‘I desired the p-porter to tell you, if – if you asked that I was gone to Ranelagh.’

  ‘Yes, I did get that message,’ Rule answered.

  ‘Well – w-well, I did go there. To the ridotto. And I w-went with Lord Lethbridge.’

  There was a pause. ‘Is that all?’ Rule asked.

  ‘No,’ confessed Horatia. ‘It’s only the b-beginning. There’s m-much worse to come.’

  ‘Then I had better reserve my wrath,’ he said. ‘Go on, Horry.’

  ‘You see, I w-went with Lord Lethbridge, and – and left the message, because – because –’

  ‘Because you naturally wanted me to know that you had – shall we say? – thrown down the glove. I quite understand that part of it,’ said Rule encouragingly.

  She looked up again. ‘Yes, that w-was the reason,’ she admitted. ‘It wasn’t that I wanted very p-particularly to be with him, Rule. And I thought since everyone was to be m-masked that nobody would know, except you, so that I should just make you angry and n-not cause any scandal at all.’

  ‘The matter is now perfectly clear,’ said Rule. ‘Let us proceed to Ranelagh.’

  ‘W-well, at first it was very p-pleasant, and I liked it excessively. Then – then we had supper in one of the boxes, and I t-teased Robert to play cards with me. You must know, M-Marcus, that I wanted dreadfully to play with him, and he never would. At last he said he would, but – but not for money.’ She knit her brows, puzzling over something, and suddenly said: ‘Rule, d-do you think that perhaps I d-drank too much champagne?’

  ‘I trust not, Horry.’

  ‘Well, I c-can’t account for it otherwise,’ she said. ‘He said he would p-play for a lock of my hair, and it’s no use d-deceiving you, Rule, I agreed!’ As no explosion of wrath greeted this confession she took a firm grip of the chair-back, and continued. ‘And I l-let him take me to a p-private room – in fact, I wanted it to be p-private – and we played p-piquet, and – and I lost. And I m-must say,’ she added, ‘though he is the most odious m-man I ever met he is a very, very fine card-p-player.’

  ‘I believe he is,’ said the Earl. ‘I need not ask, of course, whether you paid your stake.’

  ‘I had to. It was a d-debt of honour, you see. I let him cut one of my c-curls off, and – and he’s got it n-now.’

  ‘Forgive me, my dear, but have you told me this because you wish me to get that curl back for you?’ inquired his lordship.

  ‘No, no!’ Horatia replied impatiently. ‘You c-can’t get it back; I lost it in fair play. Something much, m-much worse happened then – though it w-wasn’t the worst of all. He – he caught hold of me, and took my m-mask off, and – kissed me! And Rule, the m-most dreadful thing! I f-forgot about my mask, and I ran away, and – and Lady Massey was just outside the w-window, and she saw me, and I know she had been w-watching all the time! So you see, I’ve m-made a vulgar scandal, and I thought the only thing I could do was to t-tell you at once, because even if you are furious with me, you ought to know, and I couldn’t b-bear anyone else to tell you!’

  The Earl did not seem to be furious. He listened calmly to the whole of this hurried speech, and at the end of it walked forward across the space that separated them, and to Horatia’s astonishment took her hand in his and raised it to his lips. ‘My compliments, Horry,’ he said. ‘You have surprised me.’ He released her hand, and went towards the desk that stood in the window. Taking a key from his pocket he unlocked one of the drawers and pulled it open. Horatia blinked at him, utterly at a loss. He came back to her, and held out his hand. In the palm of it lay a powdered curl.

  Horatia gave a gasp, staring at it. Then she looked up, quite dumbfounded. ‘M-mine?’ she stammered.

  ‘Yours, my dear.’

  ‘But I – but – how did you c-come by it?’

  He gave a little laugh. ‘I won it.’

  ‘Won it?’ she repeated, uncomprehending. ‘How c-could you? Who – Rule, whom did you win it from?’

  ‘Why, from you, Horry. Whom else could I have won it from?’

  She clutched his wrist. ‘Rule, it – it was not you?’ she squeaked.

  ‘But of course it was, Horry. Did you think I would let you lose to Lethbridge?’

  ‘Oh!’ cried Horatia on a sob. ‘Oh, I am so th-thankful!’ She let go of his wrist. ‘But I d-don’t understand. How did you know? Where were you?’

  ‘In the next box to yours.’

  ‘The m-man in the black d-domino? Then – then it was you who trod on my g-gown?’

  ‘You see, I had to contrive that you should be out of the way for a few moments,’ he apologized.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ nodded Horatia, quite appreciating this. ‘It was very c-clever of you, I think. And when I c-came back and thought your voice odd – that was you?’

  ‘It was. I flatter myself I imitated Lethbridge’s manner rather well. I admit that the noise those fiddles made helped me.’

  She was frowning again. ‘Yes, b-but I don’t understand quite. D-did Robert exchange d-dominoes with you?’

  A laugh lurked in his eyes. ‘It was not precisely an exchange. I – er – took his, and hid my own under a chair.’

  Horatia was regarding him keenly. ‘D-didn’t he mind?’

  ‘Now I come to think of it,’ said the Earl pensively, ‘I am afraid I forgot to ask him.’

  She came a little nearer. ‘Marcus, did you m-make him give it to you?’

  ‘No,’ replied the Earl. ‘I – er – took it.’

  ‘T-took it? But why did he let you?’

  ‘He really had no choice in the matter,’ said his lordship.

  She drew a long breath. ‘You m-mean you took it by f-force? And didn’t he do anything? What became of him?’

  ‘I imagine that he went home,’ said the Earl calmly.

  ‘W-went home! Well, I n-never heard of anything so poor-spirited!’ exclaimed Horatia, with disgust.

  ‘He could hardly do anything else,’ said the Earl. ‘Perhaps I ought to explain that the gentleman had the – er – misfortune to fall into the lily-pond.’

  Horatia�