Frederica Read online

  He liked them, but there was a limit to his endurance, and when Felix, elbowing Jessamy out of the conversation, sought enlightenment on tubular boilers, recoil-engines and screw-propellers, he laughed, and got up, saying: ‘My dear boy, if you want to know about steamboats, take a trip down the Thames – don’t ask me!’ He turned towards Frederica, but before he could take his leave of her the door opened, and two ladies entered the room. He looked round, and the words of farewell died on his lips.

  Both ladies wore walking-dresses, but there the resemblance between them ended. One was a gaunt female, of uncertain age and forbidding aspect; the other was the most ravishing girl his lordship, for all his wide experience, had ever laid eyes on. He realised that he was looking at Miss Charis Merriville, and that his secretary had not overrated her beauty.

  From her shining head of golden curls to her little arched feet, neatly shod in kid boots, she presented a picture to take any man’s breath away. Her figure was elegant; her ankles well-turned; her complexion had inspired several admirers to liken it to damask roses, or to ripe peaches; her tender mouth was exquisitely curved; her nose, escaping the aquiline, was straight, with delicately carved nostrils; and her eyes, which gazed innocently upon the world, were of a heavenly blue, and held an expression of candour, and the hint of a wistful smile. She wore a modest bonnet with a curtailed poke; and her dress was concealed by an azure blue kerseymere pelisse. The Marquis’s hand groped instinctively for his quizzing-glass; and Frederica, observing this with sisterly satisfaction, introduced him to her aunt.

  Miss Seraphina Winsham, having had the introduction repeated to her in stentorian accents by her nephews, subjected his lordship to a hostile stare, and uttered, repulsively: ‘I daresay!’ She then added: ‘Oh, go away, do!’ but as this was apparently addressed to Lufra, who was frisking about her, his lordship stood his ground. The slight bow he made won no other response than a curt nod, and an even more repelling stare. Miss Winsham, informing Frederica darkly that it was just as she had expected, stalked out of the room.

  ‘Oh, dear!’ said Frederica. ‘She’s in one of her twitty moods! What has put her all on end, Charis? Oh, forgive me! – Lord Alverstoke – my sister!’

  Charis smiled at his lordship, and gave him her hand. ‘How do you do? It was a very civil young man, Frederica, in Hookham’s library, who got a book down from the shelf for me, because I couldn’t quite reach it. He was most obliging, and even dusted it with his handkerchief before he gave it to me; but my aunt thought him a coxcomb. And they were unable to supply us with Ormond, so I brought away the Knight of St John instead, which I daresay we shall like quite as well.’

  These words were spoken in a soft, placid voice; and the Marquis, under whose critical eyes the beauties of many seasons had passed, noted with approval that this one, the most stunning he had yet beheld, used no arts to attract, but, on the contrary, seemed to be unconscious of her charms. As one who had figured for years as the most brilliant catch on the Matrimonial Market, he was accustomed to meet with every artifice designed to ensnare him; and it was with approbation that he recognised the younger Miss Merriville’s unconcern. He asked her how she liked London; she replied that she liked it very well; but her attention was otherwhere, and she made no effort to pursue this opening, saying instead, in mildly reproachful accents: ‘Oh, Felix-love, you’ve torn a button from your coat!’

  ‘Oh, botheration!’ responded Felix, hunching an impatient shoulder. ‘It don’t signify!’

  ‘Oh, no, not a bit!’ she agreed. ‘Frederica made the tailor supply us with another set, don’t you recall? I’ll sew one on for you in a trice. Only come with me! you can’t go about the town looking like a shag-rag, now, can you?’

  It was evident that the youngest Merriville saw no objection to presenting himself to the town in this guise; but equally evident was his acceptance of his elder sister’s authority, when he received, in answer to his glance of entreaty, a decided nod. He said sulkily: ‘Oh, very well!’ but, before suffering himself to be led away by Charis, took his leave of the Marquis, and said eagerly: ‘And you will take me to Soho, won’t you, sir?’

  ‘If I don’t, my secretary shall,’ replied Alverstoke.

  ‘Oh! Well – Well, thank you, sir! Only it would be better if you came with me yourself!’ urged Felix.

  ‘Better for whom?’ demanded his lordship involuntarily.

  ‘Me,’ replied Felix, with the utmost candour. ‘I daresay they would show you anything you wanted to see, on account of your being a – a second-best nobleman, which I know you are, because it says, in a book I found, that Marquises come directly after Dukes, so –’

  But at this point his disgusted brother thrust him out of the room, pausing only, before following him, to offer Alverstoke a dignified apology for his childish want of conduct. As Lufra followed close on his heels, and Charis, bestowing a valedictory smile on Alverstoke, had already departed, the Marquis was left alone with his hostess.

  She said thoughtfully: ‘As a matter of fact, I fancy it would be better if you took him to that place yourself. He is a very enterprising boy, you know, and there’s never any saying what he may take it into his head to do.’

  ‘Charles will know how to keep him in order,’ he replied indifferently.

  She looked doubtful, but said no more. It was apparent to her that his lordship had fallen into a mood of abstraction. He was staring unseeingly at the opposite wall, an odd smile playing about the corners of his mouth. It grew, and he suddenly laughed, under his breath, saying: ‘By God, I’ll do it!’

  ‘Do what?’ demanded Frederica.

  He had evidently forgotten her presence. Her voice brought his eyes round to her face, but instead of answering her he asked abruptly: ‘What are they doing here, those brothers of yours? They should be at school!’

  ‘Well, in some ways I think you may be right,’ she agreed. ‘Papa, however, never entertained the idea of sending any of his sons to school. He himself was educated at home, you know. That, of course, may not seem to you a very good reason for pursuing the same course with the boys – and, to own the truth, it doesn’t seem so to me either – but one ought not to be unjust, and it would be unjust to assume that poor Papa thought that his – his errors were due to his upbringing. And I don’t know that they were,’ she added reflectively. ‘The Merrivilles have always had a tendency towards volatility.’

  ‘Have they indeed?’ he returned, a satirical curl to his lips. ‘Is a tutor employed to instruct Jessamy and Felix, then?’

  ‘Oh, yes, scores of tutors!’ responded Miss Merriville. She perceived a startled look in his lordship’s eye, and hastened to reassure him. ‘Oh, not all at once! One after the other, you understand! You can’t think how vexatious! The thing is that if they are old the boys don’t like it, because they can’t enter into their sports; and if they are young they only want to stay for a month or two while they wait to take up a post in a school, or at one of the Universities, or some such thing. And, which is even more provoking, they always fall desperately in love with Charis!’

  ‘That I can readily believe.’

  She nodded, but sighed also. ‘Yes, and the mischief is that she cannot bring herself to repulse them. She has a fatally tender heart, and can’t bear to give pain to anyone – particularly not to people like poor Mr Griff, who was very awkward, and shy, and had red hair, and an Adam’s apple which bobbed up and down in his throat. He was the last tutor. Just at present the boys are enjoying a holiday, but when they have seen all the sights in London, and have grown a little more accustomed, I must engage another tutor for them. But Jessamy is very good, and studies for two hours every day, because he is determined to go up to Oxford when he is eighteen, a year before Harry did.’

  ‘Is Harry at Oxford now?’

  ‘Yes, in his second year. Which is why it seemed to me to be just the moment to come to London for a year. It will do him a great deal of good to see something of the world before he is oblig