"I suppose the papers have been talking a lot of rot," he answered bluntly. "I"ve had a fairly rough time, and I"m glad to tell you this, Miss Wendermott--I don"t believe I"d ever have succeeded but for your nephew Fred. He"s the pluckiest boy I ever knew."
"I am very pleased to hear it," she answered. "He"s a dear boy!"
"He"s a brick," Trent answered. "We"ve been in some queer sc.r.a.pes together--I"ve lots of messages for you! By the by, are you alone?"
"For the moment," she answered; "Mr. Davenant left me as you came up.
I"m with my cousin, Lady Tresham. She"s on the lawn somewhere."
He looked down the paddock and back to her.
"Walk with me a little way," he said, "and I will show you Iris before she starts."
"You!" she exclaimed.
He pointed to the card. It was surely an accident that she had not noticed it before. Mr. Trent"s Iris was amongst the entries for the Gold Cup.
"Why, Iris is the favourite!"
He nodded.
"So they tell me! I"ve been rather lucky haven"t I, for a beginner? I found a good trainer, and I had second call on Cannon, who"s riding him. If you care to back him for a trifle, I think you"ll be all right, although the odds are nothing to speak of."
She was walking by his side now towards the quieter end of the paddock.
"I hear you have been to Torquay," he said, looking at her critically, "it seems to have agreed with you. You are looking well!"
She returned his glance with slightly uplifted eyebrows, intending to convey by that and her silence a rebuke to his boldness. He was blandly unconscious, however, of her intent, being occupied just then in returning the greetings of pa.s.sers-by. She bit her lip and looked straight ahead.
"After all," he said, "unless you are very keen on seeing Iris, I think we"d better give it up. There are too many people around her already."
"Just as you like," she answered, "only it seems a shame that you shouldn"t look over your own horse before the race if you want to. Would you like to try alone?"
"Certainly not," he answered. "I shall see plenty of her later. Are you fond of horses?"
"Very."
"Go to many race-meetings?"
"Whenever I get the chance!--I always come here."
"It is a great sight," he said thoughtfully, looking around him. "Are you here just for the pleasure of it, or are you going to write about it?"
She laughed.
"I"m going to write about some of the dresses," she said. "I"m afraid no one would read my racing notes."
"I hope you"ll mention your own," he said coolly. "It"s" quite the prettiest here."
She scarcely knew whether to be amused or offended.
"You are a very downright person, Mr. Trent," she said.
"You don"t expect me to have acquired manners yet, do you?" he answered drily.
"You have acquired a great many things," she said, "with surprising facility. Why not manners?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"No doubt they will come, but I shall want a lot of polishing. I wonder--"
"Well?"
"Whether any one will ever think it worth while to undertake the task."
She raised her eyes and looked him full in the face. She had made up her mind exactly what to express--and she failed altogether to do it. There was a fire and a strength in the clear, grey eyes fixed so earnestly upon hers which disconcerted her altogether. She was desperately angry with herself and desperately uneasy.
"You have the power," she said with slight coldness, "to buy most things. By the by, I was thinking only just now, how sad it was that your partner did not live. He shared the work with you, didn"t he? It seems such hard lines that he could not have shared the reward!"
He showed no sign of emotion such as she had expected, and for which she had been narrowly watching him. Only he grew at once more serious, and he led her a little further still from the crush of people. It was the luncheon interval, and though the next race was the most important of the day, the stream of promenaders had thinned off a little.
"It is strange," he said, "that you should have spoken to me of my partner. I have been thinking about him a good deal lately."
"In what way?"
"Well, first of all, I am not sure that our agreement was altogether a fair one," he said. "He had a daughter and I am very anxious to find her! I feel that she is ent.i.tled to a certain number of shares in the Company, and I want her to accept them."
"Have you tried to find her?" she asked.
He looked steadily at her for a moment, but her parasol had dropped a little upon his side and he could not see her face.
"Yes, I have tried," he said slowly, "and I have suffered a great disappointment. She knows quite well that I am searching for her, and she prefers to remain undiscovered."
"That sounds strange," she remarked, with her eyes fixed upon the distant Surrey hills. "Do you know her reason?"
"I am afraid," he said deliberately, "that there can be only one. It"s a miserable thing to believe of any woman, and I"d be glad--"
He hesitated. She kept her eyes turned away from him, but her manner denoted impatience.
"Over on this side," he continued, "it seems that Monty was a gentleman in his day, and his people were--well, of your order! There was an Earl I believe in the family, and no doubt they are highly respectable. He went wrong once, and of course they never gave him another chance. It isn"t their way--that sort of people! I"ll admit he was pretty low down when I came across him, but I reckon that was the fault of those who sent him adrift--and after all there was good in him even then. I am going to tell you something now, Miss Wendermott, which I"ve often wanted to--that is, if you"re interested enough to care to hear it!"
All the time she was asking herself how much he knew. She motioned him to proceed.
"Monty had few things left in the world worth possessing, but there was one which he had never parted with, which he carried with him always.
It was the picture of his little girl, as she had been when his trouble happened."
He stooped a little as though to see over the white rails, but she was too adroit. Her face remained hidden from him by that little cloud of white lace.
"It is an odd thing about that picture," he went on slowly, "but he showed it to me once or twice, and I too got very fond of it! It was just a little girl"s face, very bright and very winsome, and over there we were lonely, and it got to mean a good deal to both of us. And one night Monty would gamble--it was one of his faults, poor chap--and he had nothing left but his picture, and I played him for it--and won!"