"_No_, m"lady. Mr. Farnborough."
"I"m afraid I"m scandalously early." In spite of his words the young man whipped off his dust coat and flung it to the servant with as much precipitation as though what he had meant to say was "scandalously late." "I motored up from Dutfield. It didn"t take me nearly so long as Lord John said."
The lady had given the young man her hand without rising. "I"m afraid my husband is no authority on motoring--and he"s not home yet from church."
"It"s the greatest luck finding _you_." Farnborough sat himself down in the easy-chair on the other side of the wide writing-table undaunted by its business-like air or the preoccupied look of the woman before it. "I thought Miss Levering was the only person under this roof who was ever allowed to observe Sunday as a real day of rest."
"If you"ve come to see Miss Levering----" began Lady John.
"Is she here? I give you my word I didn"t know it."
"Oh?" said the lady, unconvinced.
"I thought she"d given up coming."
"Well, she"s begun again. She"s helping me about something."
"Oh, helping you, is she?" said Farnborough with absent eyes; and then suddenly "all there," "Lady John, I"ve come to ask you to help _me_."
"With Miss Levering?" said Hermione Heriot"s aunt. "I can"t do it."
"No, no--all that"s no good. She only laughs."
"Oh," breathed the lady, relieved, "she looks upon you as a boy."
"Such nonsense," he burst out suddenly. "What do you think she said to me the day before she went off yachting?"
"That she was four years older than you?"
"Oh, I knew that. No. She said _she_ knew she was all the charming things I"d been saying, but there was only one way to prove it, and that was to marry some one young enough to be her son. She"d noticed, she said, that was what the _most_ attractive women did--and she named names."
Lady John laughed. "_You_ were too old!"
He nodded. "Her future husband, she said, was probably just entering Eton."
"Exactly like her."
"No, no." d.i.c.k Farnborough waived the subject away. "I wanted to see you about the secretaryship."
"You didn"t get it then?"
"No. It"s the grief of my life."
"Oh, if you don"t get one you"ll get another."
"But there _is_ only one," he said desperately.
"Only one vacancy?"
"Only one man I"d give my ears to work for."
Lady John smiled. "I remember."
He turned his sanguine head with a quick look. "Do I _always_ talk about Stonor? Well, it"s a habit people have got into."
"I forget, do you know Mr. Stonor personally, or"--she smiled her good-humoured tolerant smile--"or are you just dazzled from afar?"
"Oh, I know him! The trouble is he doesn"t know me. If he did he"d realize he can"t be sure of winning his election without my valuable services."
"Geoffrey Stonor"s re-election is always a foregone conclusion."
Farnborough banged his hand on the arm of the chair. "That the great man shares that opinion is precisely his weak point"--then breaking into a pleasant smile as he made a clean breast of his hero-worship--"his _only_ weak point!"
"Oh, you think," inquired Lady John, lightly, "just because the Liberals swept the country the last time, there"s danger of their----"
"How can we be sure _any_ Conservative seat is safe, after----" as Lady John smiled and turned to her papers again. "Forgive me," said the young man, with a tolerant air, "I know you"re not interested in politics _qua_ politics. But this concerns Geoffrey Stonor."
"And you count on my being interested in him like all the rest?"
He leaned forward. "Lady John, I"ve heard the news."
"What news?"
"That your little niece, the Scotch heiress, is going to marry him."
"Who told you that?"
She dropped the paper she had picked up and stared. No doubt about his having won her whole attention at last.
"Please don"t mind my knowing."
But Lady John was visibly perturbed. "Jean had set her heart on having a few days with just her family in the secret, before the flood of congratulation broke loose."
"Oh, _that"s_ all right," he said soothingly. "I always hear things before other people."
"Well, I must ask you to be good enough to be very circ.u.mspect." Lady John spoke gravely. "I wouldn"t have my niece or Mr. Stonor think that any of us----"
"Oh, of course not."
"She"ll suspect something if you so much as mention Stonor; and you can"t help mentioning Stonor!"
"Yes, I can. Besides I shan"t see her!"
"But you will"--Lady John glanced at the clock. "She"ll be here in an hour."
He jumped up delighted. "What? To-day. The future Mrs. Stonor!"
"Yes," said his hostess, with a hara.s.sed air. "Unfortunately we had one or two people already asked for the week and----"