Part 45 (2/2)
”A love affair!” she exclaimed, looking into his face scrutinisingly.
”And I knew nothing of it!--I, your sponsor, your lady confessor, your--well, heaven knows what I might not be if you would only behave decently! A love affair, indeed! That little yellow-haired chit, I suppose, who is down here raving about you all the time--Sylvia What's-her-name?”
He smiled.
”I know very little of Miss Sylvia Laycey,” he said, ”beyond the fact that she seems very charming.”
”I suppose you ought to marry,” she continued regretfully. ”It seems a pity, but they'll never leave you alone till you do. What is your type, then? Sylvia Laycey is much too young for you. I suppose you know that.”
”I don't think I have one,” he answered.
”That's because I am married, of course,” she went on. ”If you were a sensible man, you would settle down to adore me and not think of anybody else at all. But you won't do it. You'll want to buy palaces and yachts and town houses and theatres, like all the rest of the superfluously rich, and you'll want a musical comedy star to wear your jewels, and a wife to entertain your friends.”
”Well, you must admit that I haven't been in a hurry about any of these things yet,” he observed.
She looked at him keenly.
”Look here, my young friend,” she said, ”you haven't made the one mistake I warned you against, have you? You haven't fallen in love with Let.i.tia?”
He laughed almost brutally.
”I am not quite such a fool as that,” he a.s.sured her.
”Well, I should hope not,” she enjoined severely. ”Besides, as a matter of fact, Let.i.tia is engaged. Her young man is staying at Mandeleys now. Just answer me one question, David--why did you refuse that invitation to dinner?”
”Because I didn't feel like coming,” he answered. ”I thought it would probably be a large party, most of them neighbours, and every one would have to make an effort to entertain me because I am a stranger, and don't know their ways or anything about them.”
”There you are again!” she exclaimed. ”Just as sensitive as you can be, for all your millions! You'll come, David--please?”
”Of course I will, if you ask me like that,” he a.s.sented.
She turned to her brother, who was approaching.
”Success!” she announced. ”Mr. Thain has promised to dine. He refused under a misapprehension.”
”We are delighted,” the Marquis said. ”At a quarter past eight, Mr.
Thain.”
CHAPTER x.x.xI
Gossett in the country was a very different person from Gossett in Grosvenor Square. An intimate at Mandeleys was not at all the same thing as a caller in town, and David found himself welcomed that evening with a grave but confidential smile.
”The drawing-room here is closed for the present, sir,” he observed, after he had superintended the bestowal of David's coat and hat upon an underling. ”We are using the gallery on the left wing. If you will be so kind as to come this way.”
David was escorted into a long and very lofty apartment, cut off from the hall by some wonderful curtains, obviously of another generation.
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