Flattered by a question that seemed to evince some personal interest, he hastened to reply:
"More than eight years. I joined when I was twenty."
"Have you seen any service?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "My regiment had been for many years in active service just before I joined, so that we have been at home since then."
"In inglorious ease," she said.
"We are ready for work," he returned, "when work comes."
"How do you employ your time?" she asked; and again he was flattered by the interest that the question showed. His face flushed. Here was a grand opportunity of showing this haughty girl, this "proudest Darrell of them all," that he was eagerly sought after in society such as she had not yet seen.
"You have no conception of the immense number of engagements that occupy our time," he replied; "I am fond of horses--I take a great interest in all races."
If he had added that he was one of the greatest gamblers on the turf, he would have spoken truthfully.
"Horse racing," said Miss Darrell--"that is the favorite occupation of English gentlemen, is it not?"
"I should imagine so. Then I am considered--you must pardon my boasting--one of the best billiard players in London."
"That is not much of a boast," she remarked, with such quiet contempt that the captain could only look at her in sheer wonder.
"There are b.a.l.l.s, operas, parties, suppers--I cannot tell what; and the ladies engross a great deal of our time. We soldiers never forget our devotion and chivalry to the fair s.e.x, Miss Darrell."
"The fair s.e.x should be grateful that they share your attention with horses and billiards," she returned. "But what else do you do, Captain Langton? I was not thinking of such trifles as these."
"Trifles!" he repeated. "I do not call horse racing a trifle. I was within an inch of winning the Derby--I mean to say a horse of mine was.
If you call that a trifle, Miss Darrell, you go near to upsetting English society altogether."
"But what great things do you do?" she repeated, her dark eyes opening wider. "You cannot mean seriously that this is all. Do you never write, paint--have you no ambition at all?"
"I do not know what you call ambition," he replied, sullenly; "as for writing and painting, in England we pay people to do that kind of thing for us. You do not think that I would paint a picture, even if I could?"
"I should think you clever if you did that," she returned; "at present I cannot see that you do anything requiring mind or intellect."
"Miss Darrell," he said, looking at her, "you are a radical, I believe."
"A radical?" she repeated, slowly. "I am not quite sure, Captain Langton, that I know what that means."
"You believe in aristocracy of intellect, and all that kind of nonsense," he continued. "Why should a man who paints a picture be any better than the man who understands the good points of a horse?"
"Why, indeed?" she asked, satirically. "We will not argue the question, for we should not agree."
"I had her there," thought the captain. "She could not answer me. Some of these women require a high hand to keep them in order."
"I do not see Miss Hastings," she said at last, "and it is quite useless going to the aviary without her. I do not remember the name of a single bird; and I am sure you will not care for them."
"But," he returned, hesitatingly, "Sir Oswald seemed to wish it."
"There is the first dinner-bell," she said, with an air of great relief; "there will only just be time to return. As you seem solicitous about Sir Oswald"s wishes we had better go in, for he dearly loves punctuality."
"I believe," thought the captain, "that she is anxious to get away from me. I must say that I am not accustomed to this kind of thing."
The aspect of the dining-room, with its display of fine old plate, the brilliantly arranged tables, the mingled odor of rare wines and flowers, restored him to good humor.
"It would be worth some little trouble," he thought, "to win all this."
He took Pauline in to dinner. The grand, pale, pa.s.sionate beauty of the girl had never shown to greater advantage than it did this evening, as she sat with the purple and crimson fuchsias in her hair and the broken lily in her belt. Sir Oswald did not notice the latter until dinner was half over. Then he said:
"Why, Pauline, with gardens and hothouses full of flowers, have you chosen a broken one?"
"To me it is exquisite," she replied.
The captain"s face darkened for a moment, but he would not take offense.
The elegantly appointed table, the seductive dinner, the rare wines, all made an impression on him. He said to himself that there was a good thing offered to him, and that a girl"s haughty temper should not stand in his way. He made himself most agreeable, he was all animation, vivacity, and high spirits with Sir Oswald. He was deferential and attentive to Miss Hastings, and his manner to Pauline left no doubt in the minds of the lookers on that he was completely fascinated by her.
She was too proudly indifferent, too haughtily careless, even to resent it. Sir Oswald Darrell was too true a gentleman to offer his niece to any one; but he had given the captain to understand that, if he could woo her and win her, there would be no objection raised on his part.
For once in his life Captain Langton had spoken quite truthfully.
"I have nothing," he said; "my father left me but a very moderate fortune, and I have lost the greater part of it. I have not been careful or prudent, Sir Oswald."
"Care and prudence are not the virtues of youth," Sir Oswald returned.
"I may say, honestly, I should be glad if your father"s son could win my niece; as for fortune, she will be richly dowered if I make her my heiress. Only yesterday I heard that coal had been found on my Scotch estates, and, if that be true, it will raise my income many thousands per annum."
"May you long live to enjoy your wealth, Sir Oswald!" said the young man, so heartily that tears stood in the old baronet"s eyes.
But there was one thing the gallant captain did not confess. He did not tell Sir Oswald Darrell--what was really the truth--that he was over head and ears in debt, and that this visit to Darrell Court was the last hope left to him.
CHAPTER X.
PAULINE STILL INCORRIGIBLE.
Sir Oswald lingered over his wine. It was not every day that he found a companion so entirely to his taste as Captain Langton. The captain had a collection of anecdotes of the court, the aristocracy, and the mess-room, that could not be surpa.s.sed. He kept his own interest well in view the whole time, making some modest allusions to the frequency with which his society was sought, and the number of ladies who were disposed to regard him favorably. All was narrated with the greatest skill, without the least boasting, and Sir Oswald, as he listened with delight, owned to himself that, all things considered, he could not have chosen more wisely for his niece.
A second bottle of fine old port was discussed, and then Sir Oswald said:
"You will like to go to the drawing-room; the ladies will be there. I always enjoy forty winks after dinner."
The prospect of a _tete-a-tete_ with Miss Darrell did not strike the captain as being a very rapturous one.
"She is," he said to himself, "a magnificently handsome girl, but almost too haughty to be bearable. I have never, in all my life, felt so small as I do when she speaks to me or looks at me, and no man likes that sort of thing."
But Darrell Court was a magnificent estate, the large annual income was a sum he had never even dreamed of, and all might be his--Sir Oswald had said so; his, if he could but win the proud heart of the proudest girl it had ever been his fortune to meet. The stake was well worth going through something disagreeable for.