"Oh, the Gaiety!" she turned her shoulder to him.
"Yes, Miss Daphne, if you would come out to New York you"d have a real good time. You"d turn all the young fellow"s heads. I"m afraid you"d do a terrible amount of damage there. I should like to show you and Mrs.
Wyburn Newport in the season, too. You ladies have it all your own way over the other side of----may I say, the herringpond?"
"Oh, please do; yes, _do_ say the herringpond!"
Daphne leant forward and said to Harry:
"Do you know who is that very distinguished-looking man who has just come in--rather weary and a little grey on the temples? He bowed and kissed the woman"s hand so charmingly--at the next table to us. Looks like a great diplomatist."
"Then he must be a stockbroker," said Valentia decidedly. "Every one with the grand manner always is."
"Really! I can"t say; I don"t know any stockbrokers," said Miss Lus...o...b...
"How distinguished that sounds!" murmured Vaughan.
"It"s very clever of you, Miss Lus...o...b..," said Lady Walmer; "I don"t see how you can help it! I know n.o.body else. I always tell Alec she"ll have to marry one, and when she says she doesn"t want to, "My dear child," I say, "you can"t marry people you don"t see!" And almost the only people she ever sees at our house _are_ stockbrokers--except a few soldiers who never have a penny."
Alec was the daughter, named after her distinguished G.o.dmother.
"It"s quite gone out to be sn.o.bbish now," Lady Walmer continued in a lower voice to Harry. "We"re all only too glad to take all we can get in exchange for anything we give!"
"And you don"t call that sn.o.bbish?" said Harry.
"My dear, no!--of course, we give as little as possible. I talk like this and yet I married for love--and you know the result! Walmer"s always gambling, always running after--goodness knows what--and leaves me--not quite in the gutter, but certainly on the kerb!"
"Don"t you want Alec to marry for love?"
"I"m afraid she"ll have to, my dear--she"s not very attractive. It"s a blessing she"s an heiress. But if she"s allowed to play hockey, and skate, and fence, and dance, and the husband is fairly kind to her, I"m sure she"ll be happy--I mean, I have no idea of her marrying a duke, Harry. I shall be satisfied if he"s a charming man, and not too selfish." She lowered her voice still more to add--"You know she likes you, poor child, don"t you?"
"You"re making fun of me, dear Lady Walmer."
"No, I"m not.... Walmer"s taken "Flying Fish" again, and after Cowes we"re going for a long cruise. You must come with us. Her father will be all right. He lets me have my own way about her. Well, aren"t you coming?"
"You"re too frightfully kind, Lady Walmer, of course. But----"
"My dear boy, of course you"re going to the Green Gate, but I wish you"d listen to a woman of the world. That," she gave Valentia a piercing glance, "can"t go on for ever! You will find Romer making a row some day, and that will be a bore for you. He"s just the sort of man who would."
Valentia, noticing their confidential tone and feeling instinctively that some treachery was in the air, looked once angrily at Harry and then became apparently absorbed in the conversation of Vaughan.
Every one was talking volubly and gaily. Only Daphne and Captain Foster were silent as they sat side by side looking at their plates. But they were the only people who had found the dinner a real success.
Harry, who with all his _usage du monde_ was peculiarly subject to sudden obscure impulses as of the primitive man, became pale with a strange and painful sensation as he looked at Valentia.
She was flirting with Vaughan, or so every one present must be thinking.
Of course it was only from pique, and he would soon put a stop to it.
And Vaughan, with his ironical glance and quiet manner, why did he look into her eyes all the time?
What was he saying?
Harry asked them all to come back to the studio for some music, but even as he made the arrangement to drive Valentia, he remembered that, _a la fin des fins_, he would have to leave her at her husband"s house. Would Romer be sitting up? What an a.s.s he was! What rot the whole dinner was!
It was all through Van Buren. Van Buren was a fool. Confound Romer!
Harry was jealous.
CHAPTER VII
DAPHNE
"More flowers from Van Buren? Let me look at them. A spray of lilies of the valley; how touching! He expects you to wear them at the opera. I think it"s _such_ a mistake to wear real flowers on an evening dress.
They have a damp, chilly look, like fresh vegetables, at first, and when they begin to fade they make you look faded, too. Never mind, Daphne; I think perhaps you"d better wear them just to-night," said Valentia.
"Yesterday," said Daphne, "he sent me that basket of American Beauty roses. The day before he sent me Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x"s poems."
Valentia smiled. "Poor darling!--I mean Van Buren"s a poor darling, not you. You see, he"s got the nice sort of Boston idea that a man ought only to send a girl flowers or books, or music. He thinks it"s respectful. But, anyway, it"s a very good sign."
"A good sign? But I thought there was so much of that sort of thing--I mean fuss and attention, to girls in America. I thought that didn"t mean anything. I mean anything particular."
"Daphne, dear, don"t blind yourself; don"t shut your eyes to obvious facts. It isn"t a matter of what you think or what I think, or of speculation at all. I _happen to know_ that Van Buren _is_ going to propose to you. He"ll probably do it at Henley or at Sandown, or in the Park. He"s certain to want it to be on a typically English background; but you can take it from me, for a dead cert, that it"s bound to come."
Daphne sat down and looked serious.
"Valentia, it"s no good. Don"t let him do it. It will be so frightfully uncomfortable meeting him afterwards."
"Frightfully uncomfortable meeting the man to whom you"re engaged? Why?"
"Because I shan"t be engaged to him."
"Why not?"
"I shall never marry, Valentia."
Valentia stared at her in silence.
"What is your idea, darling? Why, you won"t be eighteen till June. You can"t be sure you"ll never want to marry!"
"Well, I don"t care for Van Buren."
"I thought you liked him so much?"
"Well, he seems all right at first. But I simply couldn"t stand him always about."