He was wrong. When the Viscount took his bride to the shrouded house in Grosvenor Square, some of her vivacity left her. Whether it was the astonished disapproval of the retainer who led them from room to room, or whether it was the depressing effect of the holland covers which draped most of the chairs and sofas, not even she knew; but a damper was certainly cast over her spirits. She clung tightly to Sherry’s arm, and stole wide, scared glances about her at all the sombre oil-paintings inheavily gilded frames, at the huge mirrors, massive chandeliers, draped curtains, and formal furniture. She was conscious of feeling small and defenceless, and she was quite unable to picture herself as mistress of all this outmoded grandeur.
Sherry, naturally, was in no way oppressed by the house, but he knew from experience that an army of servants was needed to keep it up, and he had all a young man’s horror of finding himself saddled with so much responsibility. Moreover, he thought the furniture outrageously dowdy, and he had a vague premonition that if he obeyed his instinct, and made a clean sweep of everything in the house, he would raise a storm of protest that would be very unpleasant, however unavailing. By the time he and Hero had inspected the saloons, the bed-chambers, and were being inexorably led in the direction of the servants’ quarters, he had made up his mind. ‘You know, Kitten,’ he said, ‘I don’t think you’ll like to live here.’
‘No,’ Hero replied thankfully. ‘But – but I will live here if you wish me to, Sherry.’
‘Well, I don’t,’ he said. ‘Never could stand the place myself, and Ferdy’s quite right about the furniture. What we need is a much smaller house, if you ask me. Later on, when you’re older – more up to snuff, you know – I dare say we may decide to live here, but we needn’t worry about that now. Damme, the place feels like a tomb! Come, let’s go!’
Hero accompanied him readily out into the square again, but asked, as he handed her up into the phaeton, whether they were to continue living at Fenton’s Hotel. Sherry, on whom the sobriety of this hostelry was already beginning to tell, said that not only would nothing prevail upon him to take up a permanent abode there, but that if he did not contrive to get clear soon he would not answer for the consequences.
‘Well, I must say I am glad you don’t wish to stay,’ said Hero, disposing her skirts elegantly, and unfurling her sun-shade. ‘Theystare at one so! It puts me quite out of countenance. How shall we set about finding an eligible house?’
‘Lord, I don’t know!’ replied Sherry. ‘We’ll tell Stoke to manage the whole for us. He’s the family’s man of business, you know. Come to think of it, I ought to inform him that he has me to deal with now, and not my uncles. Should you care to drive with me into the City? May as well be off to see the old fellow at once, and get the business settled.’
As Hero was perfectly ready to drive with him to the City, or, in fact, to any other locality he might take a fancy to visit, it was not long before Mr Philip Stoke was startled by the announcement, made to him by his clerk, that Lord and Lady Sheringham were in the outer office, and desired speech with him. Mr Stoke was quite taken aback, for although he was aware that the Viscount was a harum-scarum young man who would be more than likely to come impetuously in search of him, instead of summoning him to his lodging, he could not conceive of any circumstance unusual enough to have induced his lordship’s Mama to have accompanied him on his quest. He hurried out at once to beg his lordship to come into the private office, and was still more startled to find himself confronting a very youthful lady, whom his noble client carelessly announced to be his wife. Suppressing an involuntary gasp, he bowed deeply, and begged his lordship to come into the private office. Here he set a chair for Hero, at the same time assuring the Viscount that he would have been happy to have waited on him at his lodging had he but known that his services were required.
‘No, there’s no time to be wasted,’ replied Sherry.
‘Besides,’ added Hero, ‘I have never been into the City before, and only fancy! I have now seen St Paul’s!’
Before the bewildered Mr Stoke could think of a reply to this artless confidence, the Viscount had divulged the object of his visit. ‘The thing is, I want you to procure a house for us to livein,’ he said. ‘We’re putting up at Fenton’s, and I don’t like it above half.’
Mr Stoke glanced from him to Hero. He was well accustomed to his lordship’s starts, but this one seemed uncommonly odd. He could not recall having seen any announcement of the Viscount’s nuptials in theGazette, and he was perfectly sure that when he had had occasion to wait on the Honourable Prosper Verelst, not ten days previously, nothing whatever had been said of a wedding.
Sherry, reading the puzzlement in his face, said: ‘We were married yesterday. Matter of fact, we made a runaway match of it, but all quite above board, you know. And that means that that damned Trust comes to an end. You won’t have to deal with my uncles any longer.’
Mr Stoke met his eye. ‘May I say, my lord, that I shall be glad?’
‘Mighty pretty of you,’ grinned Sherry.
Mr Stoke regarded the tips of his fingers. ‘I believe I have repeatedly informed Mr Verelst that the sums of money drawn by Mr Paulett for the maintenance of Sheringham Place and Sheringham House have appeared to me to have been in excess of what could be considered necessary. I fancy your lordship is aware of this.’
‘Lord, yes, you told me of it an age since! But I shall leave all that business – the estate, you know – in your hands, Stoke,’ he promised.
Mr Stoke permitted himself to smile primly. ‘I fancy I may assure your lordship that Mr Paulett will not out-jockey me,’ he said.
‘No, I’ll wager he won’t! But never mind that now! The first thing is to find a house.’
‘But has your lordship forgotten that there is already a house belonging to you in Grosvenor Square?’
‘No, that’s just it: we don’t like it. Just been to take a look at the place, and of all the curst gloomy holes I ever was in – why,it’s worse than Brooks’s! What we want is a snug little house where we can be comfortable.’
‘Do I understand your lordship to be desirous of disposing of Sheringham House?’ asked Mr Stoke, very much shocked.
‘No need to do that,’ replied Sherry, in a large-minded way. ‘Dare say we may take it into our heads to remove there one day, and in the meantime there’s my mother to be thought of. Got to have somewhere to stay when she comes to town, after all.’
Mr Stoke, who was of the opinion that the dowager’s handsome jointure was more than sufficient to enable her to buy a house of her own, looked as disapproving as he dared, and said: ‘Your lordship can scarcely have considered the expense of maintaining a fourth establishment.’
‘Dash it, I’ve only got two places! Oh, you’re thinking of that little hunting-box you procured for me in Leicestershire, are you? I don’t count that.’
‘Oh!’ said Mr Stoke rather faintly.
‘I’m a rich man, aren’t I?’ demanded Sherry, stretching his long legs out before him.
‘Your lordship is a very rich man, but –’
‘Of course I am! And that reminds me, we must settle a few of my debts. Stupid sort of business, but I may as well be beforehand with the world, at any rate to start with.’
‘That, my lord, was what I had in mind,’ said Mr Stoke. ‘Your lordship was good enough to entrust me with the task of ascertaining the extent of your lordship’s obligations, and a fear that the sum –’
