"Oh, yes, I have been there," said Lord Lambeth. "I was taken there by my governess when I was six years old. It"s a rum idea, your going there."
"Do give me a few more rum ideas," said Bessie. "I want to see everything of that sort. I am going to Hampton Court, and to Windsor, and to the Dulwich Gallery."
Lord Lambeth seemed greatly amused. "I wonder you don"t go to the Rosherville Gardens."
"Are they interesting?" asked Bessie.
"Oh, wonderful."
"Are they very old? That"s all I care for," said Bessie.
"They are tremendously old; they are all falling to ruins."
"I think there is nothing so charming as an old ruinous garden," said the young girl. "We must certainly go there."
Lord Lambeth broke out into merriment. "I say, Woodley," he cried, "here"s Miss Alden wants to go to the Rosherville Gardens!"
Willie Woodley looked a little blank; he was caught in the fact of ignorance of an apparently conspicuous feature of London life. But in a moment he turned it off. "Very well," he said, "I"ll write for a permit."
Lord Lambeth"s exhilaration increased. "Gad, I believe you Americans would go anywhere!" he cried.
"We wish to go to Parliament," said Bessie. "That"s one of the first things."
"Oh, it would bore you to death!" cried the young man.
"We wish to hear you speak."
"I never speak--except to young ladies," said Lord Lambeth, smiling.
Bessie Alden looked at him a while, smiling, too, in the shadow of her parasol. "You are very strange," she murmured. "I don"t think I approve of you."
"Ah, now, don"t be severe, Miss Alden," said Lord Lambeth, smiling still more. "Please don"t be severe. I want you to like me--awfully."
"To like you awfully? You must not laugh at me, then, when I make mistakes. I consider it my right--as a freeborn American--to make as many mistakes as I choose."
"Upon my word, I didn"t laugh at you," said Lord Lambeth.
"And not only that," Bessie went on; "but I hold that all my mistakes shall be set down to my credit. You must think the better of me for them."
"I can"t think better of you than I do," the young man declared.
Bessie Alden looked at him a moment again. "You certainly speak very well to young ladies. But why don"t you address the House?--isn"t that what they call it?"
"Because I have nothing to say," said Lord Lambeth.
"Haven"t you a great position?" asked Bessie Alden.
He looked a moment at the back of his glove. "I"ll set that down," he said, "as one of your mistakes--to your credit." And as if he disliked talking about his position, he changed the subject. "I wish you would let me go with you to the Tower, and to Hampton Court, and to all those other places."
"We shall be most happy," said Bessie.
"And of course I shall be delighted to show you the House of Lords--some day that suits you. There are a lot of things I want to do for you.
I want to make you have a good time. And I should like very much to present some of my friends to you, if it wouldn"t bore you. Then it would be awfully kind of you to come down to Branches."
"We are much obliged to you, Lord Lambeth," said Bessie. "What is Branches?"
"It"s a house in the country. I think you might like it."
Willie Woodley and Mrs. Westgate at this moment were sitting in silence, and the young man"s ear caught these last words of Lord Lambeth"s.
"He"s inviting Miss Bessie to one of his castles," he murmured to his companion.
Mrs. Westgate, foreseeing what she mentally called "complications,"
immediately got up; and the two ladies, taking leave of Lord Lambeth, returned, under Mr. Woodley"s conduct, to Jones"s Hotel.
Lord Lambeth came to see them on the morrow, bringing Percy Beaumont with him--the latter having instantly declared his intention of neglecting none of the usual offices of civility. This declaration, however, when his kinsman informed him of the advent of their American friends, had been preceded by another remark.
"Here they are, then, and you are in for it."
"What am I in for?" demanded Lord Lambeth.
"I will let your mother give it a name. With all respect to whom," added Percy Beaumont, "I must decline on this occasion to do any more police duty. Her Grace must look after you herself."
"I will give her a chance," said her Grace"s son, a trifle grimly. "I shall make her go and see them."
"She won"t do it, my boy."
"We"ll see if she doesn"t," said Lord Lambeth.
But if Percy Beaumont took a somber view of the arrival of the two ladies at Jones"s Hotel, he was sufficiently a man of the world to offer them a smiling countenance. He fell into animated conversation--conversation, at least, that was animated on her side--with Mrs. Westgate, while his companion made himself agreeable to the younger lady. Mrs. Westgate began confessing and protesting, declaring and expounding.
"I must say London is a great deal brighter and prettier just now than it was when I was here last--in the month of November. There is evidently a great deal going on, and you seem to have a good many flowers. I have no doubt it is very charming for all you people, and that you amuse yourselves immensely. It is very good of you to let Bessie and me come and sit and look at you. I suppose you will think I am very satirical, but I must confess that that"s the feeling I have in London."
"I am afraid I don"t quite understand to what feeling you allude," said Percy Beaumont.
"The feeling that it"s all very well for you English people. Everything is beautifully arranged for you."
"It seems to me it is very well for some Americans, sometimes," rejoined Beaumont.
"For some of them, yes--if they like to be patronized. But I must say I don"t like to be patronized. I may be very eccentric, and undisciplined, and outrageous, but I confess I never was fond of patronage. I like to a.s.sociate with people on the same terms as I do in my own country; that"s a peculiar taste that I have. But here people seem to expect something else--Heaven knows what! I am afraid you will think I am very ungrateful, for I certainly have received a great deal of attention. The last time I was here, a lady sent me a message that I was at liberty to come and see her."
"Dear me! I hope you didn"t go," observed Percy Beaumont.
"You are deliciously naive, I must say that for you!" Mrs. Westgate exclaimed. "It must be a great advantage to you here in London. I suppose that if I myself had a little more naivete, I should enjoy it more. I should be content to sit on a chair in the park, and see the people pa.s.s, and be told that this is the d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk, and that is the Lord Chamberlain, and that I must be thankful for the privilege of beholding them. I daresay it is very wicked and critical of me to ask for anything else. But I was always critical, and I freely confess to the sin of being fastidious. I am told there is some remarkably superior second-rate society provided here for strangers. MERCI! I don"t want any superior second-rate society. I want the society that I have been accustomed to."
"I hope you don"t call Lambeth and me second rate," Beaumont interposed.
"Oh, I am accustomed to you," said Mrs. Westgate. "Do you know that you English sometimes make the most wonderful speeches? The first time I came to London I went out to dine--as I told you, I have received a great deal of attention. After dinner, in the drawing room, I had some conversation with an old lady; I a.s.sure you I had. I forget what we talked about, but she presently said, in allusion to something we were discussing, "Oh, you know, the aristocracy do so-and-so; but in one"s own cla.s.s of life it is very different." In one"s own cla.s.s of life!
What is a poor unprotected American woman to do in a country where she is liable to have that sort of thing said to her?"