The Hon. Peter did most of the open talking, which related to horses, yachting, opera, and sport generally: who was ruined, by what horse, or by what woman. He told one or two of Richard"s feats.
Fair smiles rewarded the hero.
"Do you bet?" said Mrs. Mount.
"Only on myself," returned Richard.
"Bravo!" cried his Bellona, and her eye sent a lingering delirious sparkle across her br.i.m.m.i.n.g gla.s.s at him.
"I"m sure you"re a safe one to back," she added, and seemed to scan his points approvingly.
Richard"s cheeks mounted bloom.
"Don"t you adore champagne?" quoth the dame with a bosom to Ripton.
"Oh, yes!" answered Ripton, with more candour than accuracy, "I always drink it."
"Do you indeed?" said the enraptured bosom, ogling him. "You would be a friend, now! I hope you don"t object to a lady joining you now and then. Champagne"s my folly."
A laugh was circling among the ladies of whom Adrian was the centre; first low, and as he continued some narration, peals resounded, till those excluded from the fun demanded the cue, and ladies leaned behind gentlemen to take it up, and formed an electric chain of laughter. Each one, as her ear received it, caught up her handkerchief, and laughed, and looked shocked afterwards, or looked shocked and then spouted laughter. The anecdote might have been communicated to the bewildered cavaliers, but coming to a lady of a demurer cast, she looked shocked without laughing, and reproved the female table, in whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s it was consigned to burial: but here and there a man"s head was seen bent, and a lady"s mouth moved, though her face was not turned toward him, and a man"s broad laugh was presently heard, while the lady gazed unconsciously before her, and preserved her gravity if she could escape any other lady"s eyes; failing in which, handkerchiefs were simultaneously seized, and a second chime arose, till the tickling force subsided to a few chance bursts.
What nonsense it is that my father writes about women! thought Richard. He says they can"t laugh, and don"t understand humour. It comes, he reflected, of his shutting himself from the world. And the idea that he was seeing the world, and feeling wiser, flattered him.
He talked fluently to his dangerous Bellona. He gave her some reminiscences of Adrian"s whimsies.
"Oh!" said she, "that"s your tutor, is it!" She eyed the young man as if she thought he must go far and fast.
Ripton felt a push. "Look at that," said the bosom, fuming utter disgust. He was directed to see a manly arm round the waist of the mignonne. "Now that"s what I don"t like in company," the bosom inflated to observe with sufficient emphasis. "She always will allow it with everybody. Give her a nudge."
Ripton protested that he dared not; upon which she said, "Then I will"; and inclined her sumptuous bust across his lap, breathing wine in his face, and gave the nudge. The mignonne turned an inquiring eye on Ripton; a mischievous spark shot from it. She laughed, and said: "Aren"t you satisfied with the old bird?"
"Impudence!" muttered the bosom, growing grander and redder.
"Do, do fill her gla.s.s, and keep her quiet--she drinks port when there"s no more champagne," said the mignonne.
The bosom revenged herself by whispering to Ripton scandal of the mignonne, and between them he was enabled to form a correcter estimate of the company, and quite recovered from his original awe: so much so as to feel a touch of jealousy at seeing his lively little neighbour still held in absolute possession.
Mrs. Mount did not come out much; but there was a deferential manner in the bearing of the men toward her, which those haughty creatures accord not save to clever women; and she contrived to hold the talk with three or four at the head of the table while she still had pa.s.sages aside with Richard.
The port and claret went very well after the champagne. The ladies here did not ignominiously surrender the field to the gentlemen; they maintained their position with honour. Silver was seen far out on Thames. The wine ebbed, and the laughter. Sentiment and cigars took up the wondrous tale.
"Oh, what a lovely night!" said the ladies, looking above.
"Charming," said the gentlemen, looking below.
The faint-smelling cool Autumn air was pleasant after the feast.
Fragrant weeds burned bright about the garden.
"We are split into couples," said Adrian to Richard, who was standing alone, eying the landscape. ""Tis the influence of the moon! Apparently we are in Cyprus. How has my son enjoyed himself?
How likes he the society of Aspasia? I feel like a wise Greek to-night."
Adrian was jolly, and rolled comfortably as he talked. Ripton had been carried off by the sentimental bosom. He came up to them and whispered: "By Jove, Ricky! do you know what sort of women these are?"
Richard said he thought them a nice sort.
"Puritan!" exclaimed Adrian, slapping Ripton on the back. "Why didn"t you get tipsy, sir? Don"t you ever intoxicate yourself except at lawful marriages? Reveal to us what you have done with the portly dame?"
Ripton endured his bantering that he might hang about Richard, and watch over him. He was jealous of his innocent Beauty"s husband being in proximity with such women. Murmuring couples pa.s.sed them to and fro.
"By Jove, Ricky!" Ripton favoured his friend with another hard whisper, "there"s a woman smoking!"
"And why not, O Riptonus?" said Adrian. "Art unaware that woman cosmopolitan is woman consummate? and dost grumble to pay the small price for the splendid gem?"
"Well, I don"t like women to smoke," said plain Ripton.
"Why mayn"t they do what men do?" the hero cried impetuously. "I hate that contemptible narrow-mindedness. It"s that makes the ruin and horrors I see. Why mayn"t they do what men do? I like the women who are brave enough not to be hypocrites. By heaven! if these women are bad, I like them better than a set of hypocritical creatures who are all show, and deceive you in the end."
"Bravo!" shouted Adrian. "There speaks the regenerator."
Ripton, as usual, was crushed by his leader. He had no argument. He still thought women ought not to smoke; and he thought of one far away, lonely by the sea, who was perfect without being cosmopolitan.
THE PILGRIM"S SCRIP remarks that: "Young men take joy in nothing so much as the thinking women Angels: and nothing sours men of experience more than knowing that all are not quite so."
The Aphorist would have pardoned Ripton Thompson his first Random extravagance, had he perceived the simple warm-hearted worship of feminine goodness Richard"s young bride had inspired in the breast of the youth. It might possibly have taught him to put deeper trust in our nature.
Ripton thought of her, and had a feeling of sadness. He wandered about the grounds by himself, went through an open postern, and threw himself down among some bushes on the slope of the hill. Lying there, and meditating, he became aware of voices conversing.
"What does he want?" said a woman"s voice. "It"s another of his villainies, I know. Upon my honour, Brayder, when I think of what I have to reproach him for, I think I must go mad, or kill him."
"Tragic!" said the Hon. Peter. "Haven"t you revenged yourself, Bella, pretty often? Best deal openly. This is a commercial transaction. You ask for money, and you are to have it--on the conditions: double the sum, and debts paid."
"He applies to me!"
"You know, my dear Bella, it has long been all up between you. I think Mount has behaved very well, considering all he knows. He"s not easily hoodwinked, you know. He resigns himself to his fate, and follows other game."
"Then the condition is, that I am to seduce this young man?"
"My dear Bella! you strike your bird like a hawk. I didn"t say seduce. Hold him in--play with him. Amuse him."
"I don"t understand half-measures."
"Women seldom do."
"How I hate you, Brayder!"
"I thank your ladyship."
The two walked farther. Ripton had heard some little of the colloquy. He left the spot in a serious mood, apprehensive of something dark to the people he loved, though he had no idea of what the Hon. Peter"s stipulation involved.
On the voyage back to town, Richard was again selected to sit by Mrs. Mount. Brayder and Adrian started the jokes. The pair of parasites got on extremely well together. Soft fell the plash of the oars; softly the moonlight curled around them; softly the banks glided by. The ladies were in a state of high sentiment. They sang without request. All deemed the British ballad-monger an appropriate interpreter of their emotions. After good wine, and plenty thereof, fair throats will make men of taste swallow that remarkable composer. Eyes, lips, hearts; darts and smarts and sighs; beauty, duty; bosom, blossom; false one, farewell! To this pathetic strain they melted. Mrs. Mount, though strongly requested, declined to sing. She preserved her state. Under the tall aspens of Brentford-ait, and on they swept, the white moon in their wake.