The Nonesuch Read online

  ‘I don’t think that was quite what Lindeth meant,’ he said dryly, ‘but certainly I’ll take charge of Tiffany. Shall I find her indulging a fit of hysterics?’

  ‘No, for I came away before she had time to throw herself into one. There’s no sense in having hysterics, you know, if one is quite by oneself.’

  He smiled, but said: ‘It’s to be hoped that she doesn’t have them for my edification, for I should be quite at a loss to know what to do!’

  ‘She won’t,’ said Miss Trent confidently. ‘Just flatter her – as you very well do know how to do!’

  ‘I think that the best service I can render you will be to drive her back to Staples,’ he said. ‘You need not then be anxious on her account – I hope!’

  The worried crease was smoothed from her brow. She said gratefully: ‘No, indeed! You know I shouldn’t be! And there can be no objection – in an open carriage, and with your groom behind!’

  ‘Yes, those circumstances will compel me to restrain any inclination I may feel to make violent love to her, won’t they?’ he agreed affably.

  She laughed. ‘Yes – if that was what I had meant to say, which it was not! I know very well you don’t feel any such inclination!’

  ‘I imagine you might! Now, I have just one thing to say before we part, ma’am! From what you have told me, this urchin hails from the slums: either in the eastern part of the town, where the dyeing-houses and most of the manufactories are situated, or on the south bank of the river.’

  ‘I am afraid so. You are going to say that I shouldn’t permit Miss Chartley to go into such districts. I know it, but I don’t think I can prevent her.’

  ‘No, I am not going to say that. But you must promise me you won’t leave the carriage, Miss Trent! So far as I am aware there is no epidemic disease rife there at the moment, but most of the dwellings are little better than hovels, and there is a degree of squalor which makes it excessively imprudent for you – or Miss Chartley, of course – to enter them.’

  She looked wonderingly at him. ‘I have never been in the poorer part of the town. Have you, then?’

  ‘Yes, I have, and you may believe that I know what I am saying. Have I your word?’

  ‘Of course: I would not for the world expose Miss Chartley to the least risk!’

  ‘Good girl!’ he said, smiling at her. ‘Tell Julian I’ve left you in his charge – and that I’ve removed the worst of your embarrassments!’

  He held out his hand, and, when she put hers into it, raised it to his lips, and lightly kissed her fingers.

  Ten

  Tiffany did not greet Sir Waldo with hysterics; but he found her weeping in an angry, uncontrolled way which warned him that a more ticklish task lay before him than he had foreseen. Like a child suffering from over-excitement, she was as miserable as she was cross, and with the slightest encouragement she would have cast herself upon Sir Waldo’s chest, and sobbed out her woes into his shoulder. With considerable skill he managed to prevent this without adding to her sense of ill-usage, but he soon saw that it was useless – indeed, perilous – to attempt to bring her to reason. The story she poured out to him bore little resemblance to the unembroidered account furnished earlier by Miss Trent. Tiffany never consciously deviated from the truth, but since she saw everything only as it affected herself the truth was apt to become somewhat distorted. Anyone unacquainted with the facts would have supposed from her version of the accident that Patience, having first, and with incredible selfishness, dragged her companions all over the town in search of her own needs, had next set her cap at Lindeth in a way that would have been diverting had it not been so unbecoming; and finally, in her determination to attract attention to herself, had created a ridiculous scene by dashing into the road to perform a spectacular and quite unnecessary rescue. For her part, Tiffany was persuaded that the nasty boy had been in no danger at all, but Patience, of course, had put on all the airs of a heroine, quite deluding Lindeth, as well as Mr Baldock, who was a very low, vulgar person, with the most disgusting manners of anyone Tiffany had ever met.

  There was a good deal more in the same strain, culminating in the iniquity of all concerned in coolly, and without as much as a by-your-leave, appropriating Tiffany’s carriage (for even if it did belong to her aunt it had been lent to her, not to Patience) for the conveyance of a dirty and thievish boy who ought rather to have been handed over to the constable. This was the crowning injury, and Tiffany’s eyes flashed as she recounted it. She did not deny that she had lost her temper. She had borne everything else without uttering a single complaint, but that had been Too Much.

  The Nonesuch, quick to seize opportunity, agreed that such conduct passed all bounds. He was astonished to learn that Lindeth and Miss Trent were so lost to all sense of propriety as to suppose that Tiffany could be left to kick her heels at the King’s Arms while they jauntered about the town (with a dirty and thievish boy) in what was undoubtedly her carriage. He said that they would be well served if, when they at last returned to the King’s Arms, they were to find that the bird had flown.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Tiffany, hiccuping on a sob. ‘Only, if I were to order John-Coachman to bring the carriage round he wouldn’t do it, because he is a detestable old man, and treats me as if I were a child!’

  ‘I’ll take you home,’ said the Nonesuch, with his glinting smile.

  She stared at him. ‘You? In your phaeton? Now? ’ He nodded; and she jumped up, exclaiming ecstatically: ‘Oh, yes! I should like that of all things! And we won’t leave a message, either!’

  ‘Oh, that will be quite unnecessary!’ he said, with perfect truth.

  Her tears ceased abruptly; and if the ill-usage she had suffered still rankled in her bosom it soon became at least temporarily forgotten in the elation of being driven by no less a person than the Nonesuch.

  Mrs Underhill was very much shocked when she heard what had happened in Leeds, but although Sir Waldo left Tiffany to tell the story as she pleased the good lady’s reception of it was not at all what her niece desired or expected. She said she wouldn’t have had such a thing happen for the world. ‘Not with Mrs Chartley letting Patience go with you, as she did, which quite surprised me, for I never thought she would, and no more she would have, if it hadn’t been for Miss Trent being there to take care of her. And what she’ll say, when she hears about this – not that Miss Trent could have stopped it, by all I can make out, for it wasn’t a thing anyone would expect to happen! Well, thank goodness Miss Trent had the sense to stay with Patience! At least Mrs Chartley won’t be able to say we didn’t do our best, or that she was left to be brought home by his lordship, which she wouldn’t have liked at all! Not that I mean he wouldn’t have kept the line, as I hope I don’t need to explain to you, Sir Waldo, for I’m sure I never knew anyone more truly the gentleman – present company excepted, of course – but Mrs Chartley – well, she’s nice to a fault, and very strict in her notions!’

  This speech was naturally extremely displeasing to Tiffany. There were danger signals in her eyes, which her aunt viewed with apprehension. Mrs Underhill hoped that she was not going to fly into one of her miffs, and she said feebly: ‘Now, Tiffany-love, there’s nothing to put you into high fidgets! To be sure, it was vexatious for you to be obliged to wait, when you was wanting to come home, but you wouldn’t have wished to leave poor Miss Chartley with no carriage, now, you know you wouldn’t! A very shabby thing that would have been! And Sir Waldo driving you home in his phaeton, which I’ll be bound you enjoyed!’

  ‘They should have asked me!’ said Tiffany obstinately. ‘If they had done so –’

  ‘I see what it is!’ suddenly announced Charlotte, whose penetrating gaze had been fixed for some minutes on her cousin’s face. ‘Nobody paid any heed to you! And you might just as easily have rescued the boy as Patience, only you didn’t, so it wasn’t you that was brave and noble, but her