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  Mr Steane, listening to this heated speech with unimpaired equanimity, said compassionately, at the end of it: 'I perceive that he has you in a string, and deeply do I pity you! You remind me so much of what I was in my youth! Hot-headed, perhaps, but replete with generous impulses, misplaced loyalties, and a touching faith in the virtue of those whom you have been taught to revere! Sad, inexpressibly sad is it that it should have fallen to my lot to shatter that simple faith!'

  'What the devil – ?' demanded Simon explosively. 'If you think that I was taught to revere Desford – or that I do revere him! – you're fair and far off, Mr Steane! Of course I don't! But – but – he's a damned good brother, and – and though I dare-say he may have his faults he ain't a rabshackle – and that you may depend on!'

  'Would that I could!' said Mr Steane regretfully. 'Alas that I cannot! Are you ignorant, my poor young man, of the way of life your brother has pursued since he made his come-out, and – I am compelled to say – is still pursuing?'

  Simon stared at him, wrath and incredulity in his eyes. The flush that had risen to his face when he had found himself compelled to violate every canon of decent reticence by uphold ing Desford's virtue darkened perceptibly. In a voice stiff with pride, he said: 'My good sir, if, by those – those opprobrious words you mean to say that my brother has ever, at any time, or in any way, conducted himself in a manner unbefitting a man of honour, I take leave to tell you that you have either been grossly misinformed, or – or you are a damned liar!' He paused, his jaw dangerously outthrust, but as Mr Steane evinced no desire to pick up the gage so belligerently flung down, but continued to sit at his ease, blandly regarding him, he said haughtily: 'I collect, sir, that when you speak of my brother's way of life, you refer to certain – certain connections he has had, from time to time, with members of the muslin company. But if you mean to tell me that you suspect him of seducing innocent females, or – or of littering the town with his butter-prints, you may spare your breath! As for the suggestion that he lured your daughter to elope with him – Good God, if it were not so damned insulting I could laugh myself into whoops at it! If he had fallen so des perately in love as to have done anything so kennel-raked, why the devil should he be doing his utmost to give her into her grandfaher's keeping? Answer me that, if you can!'

  Mr Steane shuddered eloquently, and replied in a manner worthy of a Kemble or a Kean: 'If he has indeed done so, my dread is that he has wearied of her, and is seeking to fob her off !'

  'What, in less than two days?' said Simon jeeringly. 'A likely story!'

  'My dear young greenhead,' said Mr Steane, with a touch of asperity, 'one can discover that a female is a dead bore in less than two hours! Not that I believe this Banbury story of his having gone off to Harrowgate in search of my father! It's a bag of moonshine! The more I think about it the greater becomes my conviction that he has abducted my innocent child, and bam boozled everyone into believing that he only did so because he thought she would be happier with her grandfather than with her aunt. Now, I don't doubt she may have been unhappy in that archwife's house, but if your precious brother thought she would be happier in my father's house he might be no better than a blubber-head, which I know very well he isn't! No, no, my boy! You may swallow that Canterbury tale, but don't expect me to! The plain truth is that he's bent on ruining my poor little Cherry, thinking that she has no one to protect her. He will discover his mistake! Her father will see her righted! Ay! even if he – her father, I mean, or, in a word, myself ! – has to publish the story of his infamy to the world! If he has the smallest claim to be a man of honour he can do no less than marry her!'

  'You've taken the wrong sow by the ear, sir!' said Simon, looking at him from between suddenly narrowed eyelids. 'I'm happy to be able to inform you that your daughter's reputation is unblemished! So far from being bent on ruining her, my brother was bent on ensuring that no scandal should attach to her name! And I am even happier to inform you that she is residing, thanks to Desford's forethought, in an extremely respectable household!'

  It would have been too much to have said that Mr Steane's countenance betrayed chagrin, but the bland smile certainly faded from his lips, and although his voice retained its smoothness its tone was somewhat flattened when he replied to what Simon, who had formed a pretty accurate idea of his character, believed to be an unwelcome piece of information. Simon began to feel a little uneasy, and to wish that he knew where Desford was to be found. Dash it all, it was Desford's business to deal with Mr Steane, not his! Desford would be well-served if he disclosed Cherry's exact whereabouts to this old countercoxcomb, and washed his hands of the whole affair.

  'And where,' enquired Mr Steane, 'is this respectable house-hold situated?'

  'Oh, in Hertfordshire!' said Simon carelessly.

  'In Hertfordshire!' said Mr Steane, sitting up with a jerk. 'Can it be that I have wronged Lord Desford? Has he made her an offer? Do not be afraid to confide in me! To be sure, he should have obtained my permission to address himself to Cherry, but I am prepared to pardon that irregularity. Indeed, if he supposed me to be dead his informality must be thought ex cusable.' He wagged a finger at Simon, and said archly: 'No need to be discreet with me, my boy! I assure you I shall raise no objection to the match – provided, of course, that Lord Desford and I reach agreement over the Settlement, which I have no doubt we shall do. Ah, you are wondering how I have guessed that the respectable household to which you referred can be none other than Wolversham! I have never had the pleasure of visiting the house, but I have an excellent memory, and as soon as you spoke of Hertfordshire I recalled, in a flash, that Wolversham is in Hertfordshire. A fine old place, I believe: I shall look forward to seeing it.'

  Momentarily stunned, Simon pulled himself together, and lost no time in dispelling the illusion which was obviously working powerfully on Mr Steane's mind. 'Good God, no!' he said. 'Of course he hasn't taken her to Wolversham! He wouldn't dare! You must know as well as I do, sir, how my father regards you – well, you've told me yourself that he gave you the cut direct, so I needn't scruple to say that nothing would ever prevail upon him to give his consent to Desford's marriage to Miss Steane! Not that there's the least likelihood of his being asked to do so, because there ain't! Desford has not made her an offer, because, for one thing, he ain't in love with her; for another, there's no reason why he should; and for a third – well, never mind that!'

  He had the satisfaction of seeing Mr Steane's radiant smile fade from his face, but it was short lived. A calculating look came into that gentleman's eyes, and his next words almost made the hair rise on Simon's scalp. 'I fancy, young man,' said Mr Steane, 'that you will find you are mistaken. Yes. Very much mistaken! I can well believe that your honoured parent will not favour the match, but I venture to say that I believe he would favour still less an action of breach of promise brought against his heir.'

  'Breach of promise?' ejaculated Simon. 'You'd catch cold at that, Mr Steane! Desford never made your daughter an offer of marriage!'

  'How do you know that?' asked Mr Steane. 'Were you present when he stole her out of her aunt's house?'

  'No, I was not! But he told me how it came about that he was befriending Miss Steane – '

  He stopped, for a slow smile had crept over Mr Steane's face, and he was shaking his head. 'It is easy to see that you can have little knowledge of the law, young man. What your brother may have told you is not evidence. If it were admitted – which I can assure you it wouldn't be! – it could scarcely outweigh my unfortunate child's evidence!'

  'Do you mean to say,' gasped Simon, 'that you think your daughter is the kind of girl who would stand up in a court of law, and commit perjury? Your memory isn't as good as you suppose, if that's what you think! Why, she's no more than a chit of a schoolgirl that hasn't cut her eye-teeth!'

  'Ah!' said Mr Steane, putting Simon forcibly in mind of a cat confronted with a saucer of cream. 'I collect, Mr Carrington, that you have met my little Cherry?'