His companion laughed.
"Well, I"ve only looked through it once myself just to find out. Some way I always think of Lady Joan as if she was like one of those Beaut"s from Beautsville, with trains as long as parlor-cars and feathers in their heads--dressed to go to see the queen. I guess she"s been presented at court," he added.
"Yes, she has been presented."
"Do they let "em go more than once?" he asked with casual curiosity.
"Confound this cough!" exclaimed Captain Palliser, and he broke forth again.
"Take another G," said Tembarom, producing his tube. "Say, just take the bottle and keep it in your pocket"
When the brief paroxysm was over and they moved on again, Palliser was looking an odd thing or so in the face. "I always think of Lady Joan"
was one of them. "Always" seemed to go rather far. How often and why had he "always thought"? The fellow was incredible. Did his sharp, boyish face and his slouch conceal a colossal, vulgar, young ambition?
There was not much concealment about it, Heaven knew. And as he so evidently was not aware of the facts, how would they affect him when he discovered them? And though Lady Mallowe was a woman not in the least distressed or hampered by shades of delicacy and scruple, she surely was astute enough to realize that even this bounder"s dullness might be awakened to realize that there was more than a touch of obvious indecency in bringing the girl to the house of the man she had tragically loved, and manoeuvering to work her into it as the wife of the man who, monstrously unfit as he was, had taken his place. Captain Palliser knew well that the pressing of the relationship had meant only one thing. And how, in the name of the Furies! had she dragged Lady Joan into the scheme with her?
It was as unbelievable as was the new Temple Barholm himself. And how unconcerned the fellow looked! Perhaps the man he had supplanted was no more to him than a scarcely remembered name, if he was as much as that. Then Tembarom, pacing slowly by his side, hands in pockets, eyes on the walk, spoke:
"Did you ever see Jem Temple Barholm? " he asked.
It was like a thunderbolt. He said it as though he were merely carrying his previous remarks on to their natural conclusion; but Palliser felt himself so suddenly unadjusted, so to speak, that he palpably hesitated.
"Did you?" his companion repeated.
"I knew him well," was the answer made as soon as readjustment was possible.
"Remember just how he looked?"
"Perfectly. He was a striking fellow. Women always said he had fascinating eyes."
"Sort of slant downward on the outside corners--and black eyelashes sorter sweeping together?"
Palliser turned with a movement of surprise.
"How did you know? It was just that odd sort of thing."
"Miss Alicia told me. And there"s a picture in the gallery that"s like him."
Captain Palliser felt as embarra.s.sed as Miss Alicia had felt, but it was for a different reason. She had felt awkward because she had feared she had touched on a delicate subject. Palliser was embarra.s.sed because he was entirely thrown out of all his calculations. He felt for the moment that there was no calculating at all, no security in preparing paths. You never know where they would lead. Here had he been actually alarmed in secret! And the oaf stood before him undisturbedly opening up the subject himself.
"For a fellow like that to lose a girl as he lost Lady Joan was pretty tough," the oaf said. "By gee! it was tough!"
He knew it all--the whole thing, scandal, tragically broken marriage, everything. And knowing it, he was laying his Yankee plans for getting the girl to Temple Barholm to look her over. It was of a grossness one sometimes heard of in men of his kind, and yet it seemed in its casualness to out-leap any little scheme of the sort he had so far looked on at.
"Lady Joan felt it immensely," he said.
A footman was to be seen moving toward them, evidently bearing a message. Tea was served in the drawing-room, and he had come to announce the fact.
They went back to the house, and Miss Alicia filled cups for them and presided over the splendid tray with a persuasive suggestion in the matter of hot or cold things which made it easy to lead up to any subject. She was the best of un.o.btrusive hostesses.
Palliser talked of his visit at Detchworth, which had been shortened because he had gone to "fit in" and remain until a large but uncertain party turned up. It had turned up earlier than had been antic.i.p.ated, and of course he could only delicately slip away.
"I am sorry it has happened, however," he said, "not only because one does not wish to leave Detchworth, but because I shall miss Lady Mallowe and Lady Joan, who are to be at a.s.shawe Holt next week. I particularly wanted to see them."
Miss Alicia glanced at Tembarom to see what he would do. He spoke before he could catch her glance.
"Say," he suggested, "why don"t you bring your grip over here and stay? I wish you would."
"A grip means a Gladstone bag," Miss Alicia murmured in a rapid undertone.
Palliser replied with appreciative courtesy. Things were going extremely well.
"That"s awfully kind of you," he answered. "I should like it tremendously. Nothing better. You are giving me a delightful opportunity. Thank you, thank you. If I may turn up on Thursday I shall be delighted."
There was satisfaction in this at least in the observant gray eye when he went away.
CHAPTER XX
Dinner at Detchworth Grange was most amusing that evening. One of the chief reasons -- in fact, it would not be too venturesome to say THE chief reason -- for Captain Palliser"s frequent presence in very good country houses was that he had a way of making things amusing. His relation of anecdotes, of people and things, was distinguished by a manner which subtly declined to range itself on the side of vulgar gossip. Quietly and with a fine casualness he conveyed the whole picture of the new order at Temple Barholm. He did it with wonderfully light touches, and yet the whole thing was to be seen -- the little old maid in her exquisite clothes, her unmistakable stamp of timid good breeding, her protecting adoration combined with bewilderment; the long, lean, not altogether ill-looking New York bounder, with his slight slouch, his dangerously unsophisticated-looking face, and his American jocularity of slang phrase.
"He"s of a cla.s.s I know nothing about. I own he puzzled me a trifle at first," Palliser said with his cool smile. "I"m not sure that I"ve "got on to him" altogether yet. That"s an expressive New York phrase of his own. But when we were strolling about together, he made revelations apparently without being in the least aware that they were revelations. He was unbelievable. My fear was that he would not go on."
"But he did go on?" asked Amabel. "One must hear something of the revelations."
Then was given in the best possible form the little drama of the talk in the garden. No shade of Mr. Temple Barholm"s characteristics was lost. Palliser gave occasionally an English attempt at the reproduction of his nasal tw.a.n.g, but it was only a touch and not sufficiently persisted in to become undignified.
"I can"t do it," he said. "None of us can really do it. When English actors try it on the stage, it is not in the least the real thing.
They only drawl through their noses, and it is more than that."
The people of Detchworth Grange were not noisy people, but their laughter was unrestrained before the recital was finished. n.o.body had gone so far as either to fear or to hope for anything as undiluted in its nature as this was.
"Then he won"t give us a chance, the least chance," cried Lucy and Amabel almost in unison. "We are out of the running."
"You won"t get even a look in--because you are not "ladies,"" said their brother.
"Poor Jem Temple Barholm! What a different thing it would have been if we had had him for a neighbor!" Mr. Grantham fretted.
"We should have had Lady Joan Fayre as well," said his wife.
"At least she"s a gentlewoman as well as a "lady,"" Mr. Grantham said.
"She would not have become so bitter if that hideous thing had not occurred."
They wondered if the new man knew anything about Jem. Palliser had not reached that part of his revelation when the laughter had broken into it. He told it forthwith, and the laughter was overcome by a sort of dismayed disgust. This did not accord with the rumors of an almost "nice" good nature.
"There"s a vulgar horridness about it," said Lucy.