"Plucky of her to come back here!" said Bobbie. "And how"s Lady Lucy?"
Lady Niton moved impatiently.
"Lucy would be all right if her son wouldn"t join a set of traitors in jockeying the man who put him into Parliament, and has been Lucy"s quasi-husband for twenty years!"
"Oh, you think he _is_ in the plot?"
"Of course, Lucy swears he isn"t. But if not--why isn"t Ferrier here?
His own election was over a week ago. In the natural course of things he would have been staying here since then, and speaking for Oliver. Not a word of it! I"m glad he"s shown a little spirit at last! He"s put up with it about enough."
"And Lady Lucy"s fretting?"
"She don"t like it--particularly when he comes to stay with Sir James Chide and not at Tallyn. Such a thing has never happened before."
"Poor old Ferrier!" said Bobbie, with a shrug of the shoulders.
Lady Niton drew herself up fiercely.
"Don"t pity your betters, sir! It"s disrespectful."
Bobbie smiled. "You know the Ministry"s resigned?"
"About time! What have they been hanging on for so long?"
"Well, it"s done at last. I found a wire from the club waiting for me here. The Queen has sent for Broadstone, and the fat"s all in the fire."
The two fell into an excited discussion of the situation. The two rival heroes of the electoral six weeks on the Liberal side had been, of course, Ferrier and Lord Philip. Lord Philip had conducted an astonishing campaign in the Midlands, through a series of speeches of almost revolutionary violence, containing many veiled, or scarcely veiled, attacks on Ferrier. Ferrier, on the whole held the North; but the candidates in the Midlands had been greatly affected by Lord Philip and Lord Philip"s speeches, and a contagious enthusiasm had spread through whole districts, carrying in the Liberal candidates with a rush.
In the West and South, too, where the Darcy family had many friends and large estates, the Liberal nominees had shown a strong tendency to adopt Lord Philip"s programme and profess enthusiastic admiration for its author. So that there were now two kings of Brentford. Lord Philip"s fortunes had risen to a threatening height, and the whole interest of the Cabinet-making just beginning lay in the contest which it inevitably implied between Ferrier and his new but formidable lieutenant. It was said that Lord Philip had retired to his tent--alias, his Northamptonshire house--and did not mean to budge thence till he had got all he wanted out of the veteran Premier.
"As for the papers," said Bobbie, "you see they"re already at it hammer and tongs. However, so long as the _Herald_ sticks to Ferrier, he has very much the best of it. This new editor Barrington is an awfully clever fellow."
"Barrington!--Barrington!" said Lady Niton, looking up, "That"s the man who"s coming to-night."
"Coming here?--Barrington? Hullo, I wonder what"s up?"
"He proposed himself, Oliver says; he"s an old friend."
"They were at Trinity together. But he doesn"t really care much about Oliver. I"m certain he"s not coming here for Oliver"s _beaux yeux_, or Lady Lucy"s."
"What does it matter?" cried Lady Niton, disdainfully.
"H"m!--you think "em all a poor lot?"
"Well, when you"ve known Dizzy and Peel, Palmerston and Melbourne, you"re not going to stay awake nights worriting about John Ferrier. In any other house but this I should back Lord Philip. But I like to make Oliver uncomfortable."
"Upon my word! I have heard you say that Lord Philip"s speeches were abominable."
"So they are. But he ought to have credit for the number of "em he can turn out in a week."
"He"ll be heard, in fact, for his much speaking?"
Bobbie looked at his companion with a smile. Suddenly his cheek flushed.
He sat down beside her and tried to take her hand.
"Look here," he said, with vivacity, "I think you were an awful brick to stick up for Miss Mallory as you did."
Lady Niton withdrew her hand.
"I haven"t an idea what you"re driving at."
"You really thought that Oliver should have given up all that money?"
His companion looked at him rather puzzled.
"He wouldn"t have been a pauper," she said, dryly; "the girl had some."
"Oh, but not much. No!--you took a dear, unworldly generous view of it!--a view which has encouraged me immensely!"
"You!" Lady Niton drew back, and drew up, as though scenting battle, while her wig and cap slipped more astray.
"Yes--me. It"s made me think--well, that I ought to have told you a secret of mine weeks ago."
And with a resolute and combative air, Bobbie suddenly unburdened himself of the story of his engagement--to a clergyman"s daughter, without a farthing, his distant cousin on his mother"s side, and quite unknown to Lady Niton.
His listener emitted a few stifled cries--asked a few furious questions--and then sat rigid.
"Well?" said Bobbie, masking his real anxiety under a smiling appearance.
With a great effort, Lady Niton composed herself. She stretched out a claw and resumed her work, two red spots on her cheeks.
"Marry her, if you like," she said, with delusive calm. "I sha"n"t ever speak to you again. A scheming minx without a penny!--that ought never to have been allowed out of the school-room."
Bobbie leaped from his chair.
"Is that the way you mean to take it?"
Lady Niton nodded.
"That is the way I mean to take it!"
"What a fool I was to believe your fine speeches about Oliver!"
"Oliver may go to the devil!" cried Lady Niton.
"Very well!" Bobbie"s dignity was tremendous. "Then I don"t mean to be allowed less liberty than Oliver. It"s no good continuing this conversation. Why, I declare! some fool has been meddling with those books!"
And rapidly crossing the floor, swelling with wrath and determination, Bobbie opened the bookcase of first editions which stood in this inner drawing-room and began to replace some volumes, which had strayed from their proper shelves, with a deliberate hand.
"You resemble Oliver in one thing!" Lady Niton threw after him.