‘You have clearly fallen in love with a rake! But how intriguing! Tell me all about him!’
‘I think perhaps you know, him, ma’am.’
‘Oh, no, do I? Who is he?’
‘He is Damerel,’ replied Venetia.
Lady Steeple jumped. ‘What?Nonsense! Oh, you’re shamming it! You must be!’ She broke off, knitting her brows. ‘I remember now – they have a place there, haven’t they? The Damerels – only they were hardly ever there. So youhavemet him – and of course he came round you – and you lost your heart to him, devil that he is! Well, my dear, I daresay he has broken a score of hearts besides yours, so dry your tears, and set about breaking a few hearts yourself! It is by far more amusing, I promise you!’
‘I shouldn’t think anything could be as amusing as to be married to Damerel,’ said Venetia.
‘Marriedto him! Heavens, don’t be so gooseish! Damerel never wanted to marry anyone in all his scandalous career!’
‘Oh, yes, he did, ma’am! He wanted once to marry Lady Sophia Vobster, onlymostfortunately she fell in love with someone else; and now he wants to marry me.’
‘Deluded girl! He’s been hoaxing you!’
‘Yes, he tried to hoax me into thinking he had only been trifling with me, and if it hadn’t been for my aunt’s letting the truth slip out he would have succeeded! That – that is why I’ve come to see you, ma’am!Youcould help me – if you would!’
‘I help you?’ Lady Steeple laughed, not this time so musically. ‘Don’t you know better than that? I could more easily ruin you, let me tell you!’
‘I know you could,’ said Venetia frankly. ‘I’m very much obliged to you for saying that, because it makes it much less awkward for me to explain it to you. You see, ma’am, Damerel believes that if he proposed marriage to me he would be doing me a great injury, because between them he and my Uncle Hendred have decided that I should otherwise make a brilliant match, while if I married him I should very likely be shunned by theton, and become a vagabond, like himself. I should like that excessively, so what I must do is to convince him that instead of contracting a brilliant match I am on the verge of utter social ruin. I’ve racked my brains to discover how it can be done, but I couldn’t find any way – at least, none that would answer the purpose! – and I was in such a despair – oh, in suchmisery! And then, last night, when my aunt told me – she thought I should be aghast, but I was overjoyed, because I saw in a flash that you were the one person who could help me!’
‘To social ruin! Well, upon my word!’ cried her ladyship. ‘And all to marry you to Rake Damerel – which I don’t believe! No, Idon’tbelieve it!’
But when she had heard the story of that autumn idyll she did believe it. She looked oddly at her daughter, and then began to fidget with the pots on the dressing-table, arranging and rearranging them. ‘You and Damerel!’ she said, after a long silence. ‘Do you imagine he would be faithful to you?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Venetia. ‘I think he will always love me. You see, we are such dear friends.’
Lady Steeple’s eyes lifted quickly, staring at Venetia. ‘You’re a strange girl,’ she said abruptly. ‘You don’t know what it means, though, to be – a social outcast!’
Venetia smiled. ‘But thanks to you and to Papa, ma’am, that’s what I have been, all my life.’
‘I suppose you blame me for that, but how should I have guessed –’
‘No, indeed I don’t blame you, but you will allow, ma’am, that you haven’t given me cause to be grateful to you,’ Venetia said bluntly.
Lady Steeple shrugged, saying with a pettish note in her voice: ‘Well, I never wished for children! I told you so.’
‘But I can’t believe that you wished us to be made unhappy.’
‘Of course I did not! But as for –’
‘Iam unhappy,’ Venetia said, her gaze steady on that lovely, petulant countenance. ‘You could do a very little thing for me – such atinything! – and I might be happy again, and grateful to you from the bottom of my heart!’
‘It is too bad of you!’ exclaimed Lady Steeple. ‘I might have known you would only try to cut up my peace – throw me into an irritation of nerves – What do you imagine I can do to help you?’
Sir Lambert, venturing to peep into the room half an hour later, found his daughter-in-law preparing to take her leave,and his wife in an uncertain temper, poised between laughter and vexation. He was not surprised; he had been afraid that she might find this meeting with her lovely daughter a little upsetting. Fortunately he was the bearer of tidings that were bound to raise her spirits.
‘Oh, is it you, Lamb?’ she called out. ‘Come in, and tell me how you like my daughter! I daresay you have been flirting with her already, for she is so pretty! Isn’t she? Don’t you think so?’
He knew that voice, rather higher-pitched than usual, full of brittle gaiety. He said: ‘Yes, that she is! Upon my soul, it’s devilish hard to tell you apart! I fancy you have the advantage, however – ay, you ain’t quite the equal to your mama, my dear – and you won’t mind my saying it, because she has perfect features, you know. Yes, yes, that was what Lawrence said, when he painted her likeness! Perfect features!’
Lady Steeple was seated at a small writing-table, but she got up, and came with a hasty step to stand beside Venetia, pulling her round to face a long looking-glass. For a minute she stared at the two mirrored faces, and then, to Venetia’s dismay, cast herself upon Sir Lambert’s burly form, crying: ‘She is five-and-twenty,Lamb! five-and-twenty!’
‘Now, my pretty! now, now!’ he responded, patting her soothingly. ‘Plenty of time for her to grow to be a beauty like her mama! There, now!’
She gave a hysterical little laugh, and tore herself away. ‘Oh, you are too absurd! Take her away! I must dress! Iabominatemorning callers! I lookhagged!’
