"So," said the fashionable triflers, "'twas the Duke after all, and his Grace flies to France to draw his errand to a close, and when he flies back again, upon the wings of love, five villages will roast oxen whole and drink ale to the chiming of wedding-bells."
"Lud!" said my Lady Betty, this time with her pettish2 air, this matter not being to her liking3, for why should a Duke fall in love with widows when there were exquisite4 languishing5 unmarried ladies near at hand. "'Tis a wise beauty who sets bells ringing in five villages by marrying a duke, instead of taking a spendthrift rake who is but a baronet and has no estate at all. I could have told you whom her ladyship would wed1 if she were asked."
"If she were asked! good Lord!" cried Sir Chris Crowell, as red as a turkey-cock. "And this I can tell you, 'tis not the five villages she marries, nor the Duke, but the man. And 'tis not the fine lady he takes to his heart, but our Clo, and none other, and would have taken her in her smock had she been a beggar wench. 'Tis an honest love-match, that I swear!"
Thereupon my Lady Betty laughed.
"Those who see Sir John Oxon's face now," she said, "do not behold6 a pretty thing. And my lady sees it at every turn. She can go nowhere but she finds him at her elbow glaring."
"He would play some evil trick on her for revenge, I vow," said another lady. "She hath Mistress Anne with her nearly always in these days, as if she would keep him off by having a companion; but 'tis no use, follow and badger7 her he will."
"Badger her!" blustered8 Sir Chris. "He durst not, the jackanapes! He is not so fond of drawing point as he was a few years ago."
"'Tis badgering and naught10 else," said Mistress Lovely. "I have watched him standing11 by and pouring words like poison in her ear, and she disdaining12 to reply or look as though she heard."
"He hath gone mad," she said. "And no wonder! My woman, who knows a mercer's wife at whose husband's shop he bought his finery, told me a story of him. He was so deep in debt that none would give him credit for an hour, until the old Earl of Dunstanwolde died, when he persuaded them that he was on the point of marrying her ladyship. These people are so simple they will believe anything, and they watched him go to her house and knew he had been her worshipper before her marriage. And so they gave him credit again. Thence his fine new wardrobe came. And now they have heard the news and have all run mad in rage at their own foolishness, and are hounding him out of his life."
The two ladies made heartless game enough of the anecdote14. Perhaps both had little spites of their own against Sir John, who in his heyday15 had never spoke16 with a woman without laying siege to her heart and vanity, though he might have but five minutes to do it in. Lady Betty, at least, 'twas known had once had coquettish and sentimental17 passages with him, if no more; and whether 'twas her vanity or her heart which had been wounded, some sting rankled18, leaving her with a malice19 against him which never failed to show itself when she spoke or heard his name.
A curious passage took place between them but a short time after she had told her story of his tricking of his creditors20. 'Twas at a Court ball and was a whimsical affray indeed, though chiefly remembered afterwards because of the events which followed it—one of them occurring upon the spot, another a day later, this second incident being a mystery never after unravelled21. At this ball was my Lady Dunstanwolde in white and silver, and looking, some said, like a spirit in the radiance of her happiness.
"For 'tis pure happiness that makes her shine so," said her faithful henchman, old Sir Christopher. "Surely she hath never been a happy woman before, for never hath she smiled so since I knew her first, a child. She looks like a creature born again."
Lady Betty Tantillion engaged in her encounter in an antechamber near the great saloon. Her ladyship had a pretty way of withdrawing from the moving throng22 at times to seek comparative seclusion23 and greater ease. There was more freedom where there would be exchange of wits and glances, not overheard and beheld24 by the whole world; so her ladyship had a neat taste in nooks and corners, where a select little court of her own could be held by a charming fair one. Thus it fell that after dancing in the ball-room with one admirer and another, she made her way, followed by two of the most attentive25, to a pretty retiring-room quite near.
'Twas for the moment, it seemed, deserted26, but when she entered with her courtiers, the exquisite Lord Charles Lovelace and his friend Sir Harry27 Granville, a gentleman turned from a window where he seemed to have been taking the air alone, and seeing them uttered under his breath a malediction28.
"To the devil with them!" he said, but the next moment advanced with a somewhat mocking smile, which was scarce hidden by his elaborate bow of ceremony to her ladyship.
"My Lady Betty Tantillion!" he exclaimed, "I did not look for such fortune. 'Tis not necessary to hope your ladyship blooms in health. 'Tis an age since we met."
Since their rupture29 they had not spoken with each other, but my Lady Betty had used her eyes well when she had beheld him even at a distance, and his life she knew almost as well as if they had been married and she a jealous consort30.
But she stood a moment regarding him with an impertinent questioning little stare, and then held up her quizzing-glass and uttered an exclamation31 of sad surprise.
"Sir John Oxon!" she said. "How changed! how changed! Sure you have been ill, Sir John, or have met with misfortunes."
To the vainest of men and the most galled—he who had been but a few years gone the most lauded32 man beauty in the town, who had been sought, flattered, adored—'twas a bitter little stab, though he knew well the giver of the thrust. Yet he steeled himself to bow again, though his eyes flashed.
"I have indeed been ill and in misfortune," he answered, sardonically33. "Can a man be in health and fortunate when your ladyship has ceased to smile upon him?"
My Lady Betty courtesied with a languid air.
"Lord Charles," she said, with indifferent condescension34, "Sir Harry, you have heard of this gentleman, though he was before your day. In his—" (as though she recalled the past glories of some antiquated35 beau) "you were still at the University."
Then as she passed to a divan36 to seat herself she whispered an aside to Lord Charles, holding up her fan.
"The ruined dandy," she said, "who is mad for my Lady Dunstanwolde. Ask him some question of his wife?"
Whereupon Lord Charles, who was willing enough to join in badgering a man who had still good looks enough to prove a rival had he the humour, turned with a patronising air of civility.
"My Lady Oxon is not with you?" he observed.
"There is none, your lordship," Sir John answered, and almost ground his teeth, seeing the courteous37 insolence38 of the joke. "I am a single man."
"Lud!" cried my Lady Betty, fanning with graceful39 indifference40. "'Twas said you were to marry a great fortune, and all were filled with envy. What become, then, of the fair Mistress Isabel Beaton?"
"She returned to Scotland, your ladyship," replied Sir John, his eyes transfixing her. "Ere now 'tis ancient history."
"Fie, Sir John," said Lady Betty, laughing wickedly, "to desert so sweet a creature. So lovely—and so rich! Men are not wise as they once were."
Sir John drew nearer to her and spoke low. "Your ladyship makes a butt41 of me," he said. And 'twas so ordained42 by Fate, at this moment when the worst of him seethed43 within his breast, and was ripest for mad evil, Sir Christopher Crowell came bustling44 into the apartment, full of exultant45 hilarity46 and good wine which he had been partaking of in the banqueting-hall with friends.
"Good Lord!" he cried, having spoke with Lady Betty; "what ails47 thee, Jack9? Thy very face is a killjoy."
"'Tis repentance48, perhaps," said Lady Betty. "We are reproaching him with deserting Mistress Beaton—who had even a fortune."
Sir Christopher glanced from Sir John to her ladyship and burst forth49 into a big guffaw50, his convivialities having indeed robbed him of discretion51.
"He desert her!" said he. "She jilted him and took her fortune to a Marquis! 'Twas thine own fault, too, Jack. Hadst thou been even a decent rake she would have had thee."
"By God!" cried Sir John, starting and turning livid; and then catching52 a sight of the delight in my Lady Betty's face, who had set out to enrage53 him before her company, he checked himself and broke into a contemptuous, short laugh.
"These be country manners, Sir Christopher," he said. "In Gloucestershire bumpers54 are tossed off early, and a banquet added turns a man's head and makes him garrulous55."
"Ecod!" said Sir Christopher, grinning. "A nice fellow he is to twit a man with the bottle. Myself, I've seen him drunk for three days."
Whereupon there took place a singular change in Sir John Oxon's look. His face had been so full of rage but a moment ago that, at Sir Chris's second sally, Lady Betty had moved slightly in some alarm. Town manners were free, but not quite so free as those of the country, and Sir John was known to be an ill-tempered man. If the two gentlemen had quarrelled about her ladyship's own charms 'twould have been a different matter, but to come to an encounter over a mere56 drinking-bout would be a vulgar, ignominious57 thing in which she had no mind to be mixed up.
"Lord, Sir Christopher," she exclaimed, tapping him with her fan. "Three days! For shame!"
But though Sir John had started 'twas not in rage. Three days carousing58 with this old blockhead! When had he so caroused59? He could have laughed aloud. Never since that time he had left Wildairs, bearing with him the lock of raven60 hair—his triumph and his proof. No, 'twas not in anger he started but through a sudden shock of recollection, of fierce, eager hope, that at last, in the moment of his impotent humiliation61, he had by chance—by a very miracle of chance—come again upon what he had so long searched for in helpless rage—that which would give power into his hand and vengeance62 of the bitterest.
And he had come upon it among chatterers in a ball-room through the vinous babbling63 of a garrulous fool.
"Three days!" he said, and took out his snuff-box and tapped it, laughing jeeringly64. And this strange thing my Lady Betty marked, that his white hand shook a little as if from hidden excitement. "Three days!" he mocked.
"No man of fashion now," said Lord Charles, and tapped his snuff-box also, "is drunk for more than two."
But Sir Christopher felt he was gaining a victory before her ladyship's very eyes, which always so mocked and teased him for his clumsiness in any encounter of words, wherefore he pressed his point gleefully.
"Three days!" cries he. "'Twas nearer four."
Sir John turned on him, laughing still, seeming in very truth as if the thing amused him.
"When, when?" he said. "Never, I swear!" and held a pinch of snuff in his fingers daintily, his eyes gleaming blue as sapphires65 through the new light in them.
"Swear away!" cried Sir Christopher; "thou wast too drunk to remember. 'Twas the night thou hidst the package in the wall."
Then he burst forth again in laughter, for Sir John had so started that he forgot his pinch of snuff and scattered66 it.
"Canst see 'tis no slander67, my lady," he cried, pointing at Sir John, who stood like a man who wakes from long sleep and is bewildered by the thoughts which rush through his brain. "I laughed till I was like to crack my sides." Then to Sir John, "Thou hadst but just left Clo Wildairs and I rode with thee to Essex. Lord, how I laughed to watch thee groping to find a place safe enough to put it in. 'I'm drunk,' says thou, 'and I would have it safe till I am sober. 'Twill be safe here,' and stuffed it in the broken plaster 'neath the window-sill. And safe it was, for I'll warrant thou hast not thought of it since, and safe thou'lt find it at the Cow at Wickben still."
Sir John struck one closed hand sudden on the palm of the other.
"Ay, it comes back," answers Sir John; "it comes back." And he broke forth into a short, excited laugh, there being in its sound a note of triumph almost hysteric; and hearing this they stared, for why in such case he should be triumphant69, Heaven knew.
"'Twas a love-token!" said Lady Betty, simpering, for of a sudden he had become another man—no longer black-visaged, but gallant70, and smiling with his old charming, impudent71, irresistible72 air. He bent73 and took her hand and kissed her finger-tips with this same old enchanting74 insolence.
"Had your ladyship given it to me," he said, "I had not hid it in a wall, but in my heart." And with a soft glance and a smiling bow he left their circle and sauntered towards the ball-room.
"'Twas the last time I spoke with him," said my Lady Betty, when he was talked of later. "I wonder if 'twas in his head when he kissed my hand—if indeed 'twas a matter he himself planned or had aught to do with. Faith! though he was a villain75 he had a killing76 air when he chose."
When her ladyship had played off all her airs and graces upon her servitors she led them again to the ball-room that she might vary her triumphs and fascinations77. A minuet was being played, and my Lady Dunstanwolde was among the dancers, moving stately and slow in her white and silver, while the crowd looked on, telling each other of the preparations being made for her marriage, and that my lord Duke of Osmonde was said to worship her, and could scarce live through the hours he was held from her in France.
Among the watchers, and listening to the group as he watched, stood Sir John Oxon. He stood with a graceful air and watched her steadily78, and there was a gleam of pleasure in his glance.
"He has followed and gazed at her so for the last half-hour," said Mistress Lovely. "Were I the Duke of Osmonde I would command him to choose some other lady to dog with his eyes. Now the minuet is ending I would wager79 he will follow her to her seat and hang about her."
And this indeed he did when the music ceased, but 'twas done with a more easy, confident air than had been observed in him for some time past. He did not merely loiter in her vicinity, but when the circle thinned about her he made his way through it and calmly joined her.
"Does he pay her compliments?" said Lord Charles, who looked on at a distance. "Faith, if he does, she does not greatly condescend80 to him. I should be frozen by a beauty who, while I strove to melt her, did not deign81 to turn her eyes. Ah, she has turned them now. What has he said? It must have been fire and flame to move her. What's this—what's this?"
He started forward, as all the company did—for her ladyship of Dunstanwolde had risen to her full height with a strange movement and, standing a moment swaying, had fallen at Sir John Oxon's feet, white in a death-like swoon.
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1
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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pettish
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| adj.易怒的，使性子的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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6
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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8
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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9
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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10
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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disdaining
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| 鄙视( disdain的现在分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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14
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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15
heyday
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| n.全盛时期，青春期 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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rankled
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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unravelled
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| 解开，拆散，散开( unravel的过去式和过去分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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malediction
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| n.诅咒 | |
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rupture
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| n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂 | |
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consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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lauded
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| v.称赞，赞美( laud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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42
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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seethed
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| （液体）沸腾( seethe的过去式和过去分词 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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44
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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hilarity
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| n.欢乐；热闹 | |
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47
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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guffaw
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| n.哄笑；突然的大笑 | |
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51
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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52
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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53
enrage
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| v.触怒，激怒 | |
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bumpers
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| （汽车上的）保险杠，缓冲器( bumper的名词复数 ) | |
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garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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56
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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ignominious
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| adj.可鄙的，不光彩的，耻辱的 | |
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58
carousing
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| v.痛饮，闹饮欢宴( carouse的现在分词 ) | |
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caroused
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| v.痛饮，闹饮欢宴( carouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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64
jeeringly
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| adv.嘲弄地 | |
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65
sapphires
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| n.蓝宝石，钢玉宝石( sapphire的名词复数 )；蔚蓝色 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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68
grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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69
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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70
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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71
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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72
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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73
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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74
enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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75
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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76
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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77
fascinations
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| n.魅力( fascination的名词复数 )；有魅力的东西；迷恋；陶醉 | |
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78
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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79
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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80
condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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81
deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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