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  Mr Ringwood, too relieved for speech, took the weapon, held out his hand for Sherry’s, and restored both to their case. The late antagonists looked at one another measuringly.

  ‘What I’ve a dashed good mind to do,’ said Sherry, ‘is to take my coat off to you, George, and see if I can’t draw your claret! It’s what I ought to have done in the first place!’

  ‘No, my God, not before we’ve had breakfast!’ replied George. His reluctant grin dawned; he thrust out his hand.‘I’m sorry, Sherry! Never meant to do it, you know, and really there wasn’t a mite of harm in it!’

  ‘Oh, go to the devil!’ responded Sherry, gripping his hand. ‘If ever I met such a fellow! Here, did you think to order breakfast, Ferdy?’

  Fourteen

  THE LAST SHREDS OF ANIMOSITY VANISHED OVER THE SUBSTAN-tial breakfast provided by the landlord of an adjacent inn; and so mellowing was the effect of the ale with which the four young gentlemen washed down vast quantities of beef, ham, and pigeon-pie, that Sherry had no hesitation in allowing his friends to share the jest of his having actually gone to the lengths of drawing up his Will on the previous day. George shouted with laughter when he heard about this, and said that if he had known Sherry could hit a tree when he aimed at it he would very likely have drawn up his own Will. This naturally put Sherry on his mettle, and he at once challenged George to a shooting contest, to be held at Manton’s Gallery. Mr Ringwood, and Mr Fakenham, always ready for a side-bet, objected that unless George were to be suitably handicapped no one in his senses would bet against him, and the rest of the meal passed in arguing over all the more impossible forms of handicap which suggested themselves to four gentlemen in the sort of high spirits into which sudden relief from twenty-four hours of anxiety had plunged them. When they finally left the inn, Ferdy and Mr Ringwood went off together in Ferdy’s tilbury, and George took up Sherry in his phaeton, promising to set him down in Half Moon Street.

  ‘Kitten will be wanting to be assured of your safety,’ he grinned.

  ‘Oh, she don’t know anything about it!’ replied Sherry.

  George made no remark upon this for a moment or two, but when he had thought the matter over he decided to be open with Sherry. He said frankly:‘Yes, she does. Wasn’t going to tell you, but now I come to think of it your coachman knows, and ten to one if you heard of it through him you’d be wanting to cut my liver out again. It was Gil’s fault. Ferdy’s too. The silly gudgeons thought I meant to kill you. They must think I’m a rum ’un! What must they do but go off to tell Kitten the whole! The lord knows what they thought she could do, for even Ferdy can’t have supposed you’d rat, and they can’t either of them have meant that she should come to see me – which is what she did do.’

  ‘What?’ gasped Sherry.

  George nodded. ‘Yesterday morning. You know, Sherry, you ought to keep an eye on your Kitten. Not my business, but she’s such a baby there’s no knowing what she’ll do next. Came to beg me not to meet you.’

  ‘If that isn’t like Kitten!’ exclaimed Sherry. ‘You know, George, there’s no keeping pace with her at all! How was I to guess I ought to have warned her to take a hackney, if she meant to call at a man’s lodgings?’

  George looked a trifle startled, and said: ‘The point is she ought not to call at a fellow’s lodgings, old boy.’

  ‘No, by Jove, she ought not!’ agreed Sherry. ‘Devil of a business being married, George! You’ve no notion! Never thought I should be kept so busy, but what with the Royal Saloon, the Peerless Pool – yes, I was only in the very nick of time to stop her going off there! – Bartholomew Fair, and now this, not to mention a few other starts – dash it, I don’t have a quiet moment!’

  ‘She don’t mean a bit of harm, Sherry,’ said George awkwardly.

  ‘Oh, lord, no! The thing is, she ain’t up to snuff yet, and that cousin of hers never put her in the way of things.’

  George feather-edged a corner before saying: ‘I dare say she wouldn’t do anything she thought you might not like. Devilish fond of you, Sherry.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve known her since she was eight years old, you see,’ responded Sherry, with an unconcern that effectually silenced his friend.

  While these events had been taking place, Hero had received an early morning visit from Miss Milborne,who was ushered into the dining-room before the breakfast dishes had been removed from the table. She was looking rather pale, and she bore herself with something less than her usual poise. Without pausing to apologise for calling at so unreasonable an hour, she said impetuously:‘ You were right! I have not been able to sleep for thinking of it! Indeed I did not mean to be so disobliging! I will do what I may to dissuade Wrotham from engaging in this affair!’

  There was not a particle of malice in Hero’s nature, and she responded at once with the sunniest of smiles, and a warm hand-clasp.‘Oh, I knew I could not be mistaken in you, Isabella! I am very much obliged to you, only it is too late, for they went off some hours ago to Westbourn Green. I cannot imagine what can be detaining them so long!’

  Miss Milborne stared at her in horror.‘They have gone? And you can sit here, eating your breakfast, as though – And you called me heartless!’

  Hero gave a little chuckle. ‘Oh, but there is nothing to be worried about! George promised me he would not hurt a hair of Sherry’s head. He said he would fire in the air, so I can be quite comfortable, you see!’

  ‘And what,’ asked Miss Milborne, in a strangled voice, ‘if it is Sherry who kills George?’

  ‘Well, I thought of that, too,’ admitted Hero. ‘But George assured me Sherry could not hit him at twenty-five yards, and I expect he must know. Do let me give you some coffee, Isabella!’ ‘Thank you, no. I collect that you actually called on Wrotham at his lodging?’

  ‘Yes, for what else could I do, when you would not help me? And, indeed, I am very sorry that I troubled you, Isabella, for there was not the least need: George told me instantly that I need have no fear for Sherry. And Gil said I must particularly request you not to mention the matter to a soul, and I forgot to do so.’

  ‘Make yourself easy on that score: I should not think of prattling upon such a subject!’ Miss Milborne said, in a colourless tone.‘I must not stay. I am happy to know that my intervention was not needed.’

  Hero perceived that she had in some way erred, and said nervously,‘No, but – but I do hope you do not think – George said that he had not the least notion of killing Sherry, you see, so perhaps my intervention was not needed either.’

  ‘Very likely,’ said Miss Milborne. ‘It is a case of all’s well that ends well, in fact.’

  ‘Yes, only – Isabella, pray do not be thinking that George cares a button for me, for nothing could be more nonsensical!’

  Miss Milborne gave a tinkling little laugh. ‘My dear, if I trust that he does not it is quite for your own sake, I assure you! It is nothing to me whom he cares for. Now, indeed, I must go, for I have to drive out presently with Mama! We shall meet at Almack’s, I dare say. Do you go to the Cowpers’ party? I need not ask, however! all the world and his wife will be there, I collect!’

  Hero was so much quelled by this bright manner that she could summon up no more courage than sufficed to allow her to escort her friend to the front door, and bid her a somewhat faltering farewell. She began to be much afraid that she had done poor George a very ill-turn; and until the sound of Sherry’s steps in the hall banished any but the most cheerful thoughts she sat wondering how she could best set matters to rights for that ill-starred lover.

  Sherry came cheerfully in, and, as she jumped up, took her by the shoulders and shook her, not very hard, saying: ‘Kitten, you little wretch, how dared you ask George not to blow a hole through me?’

  ‘But I did not wish him to blow a hole through you, Sherry!’ she replied reasonably. ‘What else could I do? Only I am afraid I have made Isabella very angry, and I don’t know what to do!’

  ‘What the deuce has Isabella to say to anything?’ he