‘George, you said you would not wish to make me unhappy!’ Hero said desperately.
‘No, by Jove, not for the world!’
‘But don’t you see, you stupid creature, that if you kill Sherry I shall be so unhappy I shall die?’ Hero said.
‘Oh, I’m not going to kill Sherry!’ said his lordship carelessly. ‘What put that into your head?’
She released his coat, and stood staring at him. ‘But they told me – Gil and Ferdy –’
‘You don’t mean that that brace of gudgeons blabbed the whole thing to you?’ George ejaculated.
‘But what else could they do, when they thought you meant to kill Sherry?’
‘Pooh! nonsense! Who said anything about killing anyone? Good God, Sherry’s a friend of mine!’
‘Yes, but – but if you do not mean to beg his pardon, I am much afraid he will insist on fighting you,’ said Hero.
‘Oh, lord, yes! He’s a regular good ’un, Sherry!’ said George, with the utmost cordiality.
Hero regarded him blankly. ‘George, if you mean to wound Sherry, I would much, much rather you did not!’
‘No, no, I won’t hurt a hair of his head!’ he assured her. ‘I shall delope.’
‘What is that, please?’
‘Oh! – fire into the air!’
‘Well, George, indeed I am very much obliged to you, but would it not be better not to meet Sherry at all?’
‘Hang it, no! We must meet! He challenged me!’
‘Yes, I know, but – George, if you mean to fire into the air, it seems to me that Sherry may very likely kill you!’
‘Sherry? At twenty-five yards?’ said George. ‘Wouldn’t hit a haystack at that range! That’s why I chose it. Not but what I don’t care if he does put a bullet through me,’ he added, his brow clouding suddenly.
‘Well, I care!’ said Hero tartly. ‘He would have to fly the country, and what would become of me then?’
George’s gloom vanished in a grin. ‘Oh, Kitten, you horrid little wretch! Don’t tease yourself! He won’t hit me.’
‘You don’t feel that I had better warn him you mean to fire in the air?’ she asked anxiously.
He took her by the shoulders, and gave her a shake. ‘You dare tell Sherry one word about this!’ he said. ‘If he knew what you’d done he’d be fit to murder the pair of us! Besides, you’ve no business to be mixed up in it! You must go home. And not a word to a soul, mind!’
‘But I must tell Gil –’
‘No, you must not! I’ll settle Gil! Deserves to be called out himself for frightening you like this!’
‘Oh, no, pray don’t do that, George!’ she said hastily.
‘Wouldn’t be any use if I did: there’s no getting Gil out at all. But you know, Kitten, I do think you should have known I wouldn’t hurt Sherry!’
‘To tell you the truth,’ she confided, ‘I did not think so, until Gil and Ferdy came to see me. But how odious it was of you to lead them to think you meant to kill him! You are quite abominable, George, you know you are!’
He admitted it, but pleaded that Gil and Ferdy had been in such a pucker that he could not help himself. Hero laughed at this; he escorted her out to her barouche, and they parted on the best of terms. Hero drove back to Half Moon Street, and George sent a note to Mr Ringwood’s lodging, desiring him to stop making a cake of himself. Mr Ringwood showed this cryptic missive to Mr Fakenham, and both gentlemen came to the conclusion that whatever had been the outcome of Miss Milborne’s intervention George had no intention of killing Sherry on the morrow.
Sherry, meanwhile, had been spending a singularly depressing morning with his lawyer. He had been making his Will, a task that engendered in him such a mood of melancholy that hedespatched a note to Sir Montagu Revesby, excusing himself from making one of a card-party that evening, and would have spent the evening by his own fireside had it not occurred to him that such tame behaviour might be thought to augur a disinclination (to put it no higher) to meet Lord Wrotham upon the morrow. So instead of indulging his gloomy reflections in his wife’s drawing-room he took her to the theatre, and, since the piece was a lively one, contrived to be tolerably amused. Hero enjoyed herself hugely, a circumstance which led his lordship to suppose that she could not be aware of his assignation at Westbourn Green. He naturally would not have dreamed of mentioning such a matter to her, but he could not help thinking that it might come as a severe shock to her if his lifeless corpse were to be borne into the house just as she was sitting down to breakfast, so he tried to drop her a hint.
‘You know, Kitten,’ he said, outside her chamber door, ‘if anything were to happen to me at any time – mind you, I don’t say anything will, but you never know! – well, what I mean is, I’ve made all the proper provisions, and – and no strings tied to ’em, so that you’ll be able to marry again, if you choose.’
