Part 6 (1/2)
She looked at the d.u.c.h.ess and then asked in a small voice, ”Did I a behave as you a wanted me to? I did not do a anything wrong?”
The d.u.c.h.ess put a hand on her shoulder.
”You did everything right, my dear,” she said, ”and I was very very proud of you.”
”You are a certain, quite a certain?” Ula persisted.
The d.u.c.h.ess understood that being abused and beaten and forced to endure the harsh criticism of her parents at Chessington Hall had made Ula unsure of herself.
”What you have to acquire, my dear,” the d.u.c.h.ess said as they went from the drawing room and started up the stairs, ”is some of my grandson's arrogance. He is quite sure that he is always right, and that, I think, is an a.s.set in this world.”
Her voice was mocking as she added, ”Especially in a Society in which whatever one does or whatever one says, somebody is going to be critical. When they are, it is a mistake to let oneself be hurt by it.”
”I understand what you are saying,” Ula said, ”but I cannot be as a pretty or as a successful as you say I am.”
The d.u.c.h.ess laughed.
”That is not at all the right att.i.tude! You have to learn to look down your nose and say, 'if they don't like me as I am, then they will just have to put up with me!'”
Ula laughed too.
”I doubt if I shall ever be able to do that.”
”What are you laughing about?” a voice behind them said.
They looked around from halfway up the stairs to see that the Marquis had entered the hall.
”How did your party go?” he enquired.
”Need you ask?” the d.u.c.h.ess replied. ”Your protegee was a huge success, but she is finding it hard to believe that the compliments she receives are entirely genuine.”
The Marquis looked up at Ula's flushed, flower-like face looking down at him over the bannisters.
He thought as he did so that it would be impossible to find in the whole of London anyone so lovely in her unique manner.
He told himself that he had been extremely clever in realising her potential when he had picked her up on the road.
As he walked away to his Study he was thinking with satisfaction of how he had just alerted the members of White's Club into being curious.
He had walked into the Coffee Room and automatically, because it was his acknowledged right, had taken the place which had formerly been occupied by Beau Brummell in the famous bow window that overlooked St. James's street.
”I thought you were in the country, Raventhorpe!” one of his friends remarked.
”I have returned,” the Marquis replied.
He knew as he spoke that quite a number of his closest friends were aware that he had gone to the country to see Lady Sarah Chessington. Although he had not said so, they had instinctively a.s.sumed that he intended to propose to her.
They waited now for him to tell them when the wedding would take place, on the presumption that no woman would refuse such a matrimonial catch.
In fact the Marquis was aware that the betting for the last week at White's had been four-to-one on on his proposing to the incomparable Sarah.
There was silence until somebody asked a little tentatively, knowing how seldom the Marquis talked of his private affairs, ”Did anything happen while you were in the country?”
”It certainly did,” the Marquis replied, ”but I think it would be a mistake for me to tell you about it.”
”Why the secrecy?”
”It will not be a secret for long,” he answered. ”In fact, I found myself quite unexpectedly in the role of explorer discovering an hitherto unknown priceless jewel!”
The Marquis was well aware as he finished speaking that there was an extremely puzzled expression in his friends' eyes.
Two of them drew their chairs a little closer to his, and another, bolder than the rest, asked, ”What do you mean a an unknown treasure?”
The Marquis knew he was thinking that while Lady Sarah might be an 'Incomparable' and was certainly a treasure, there was nothing unknown about her!
In fact, she had been the toast of all the clubs in St. James's for the past six months.
”Unknown to you and certainly to me until I found her. But I suppose that is what we are all seeking in one way or another,” the Marquis said cryptically. ”It is what has kept the poets raving, the artists painting and the musicians composing ever since the beginning of time.”
”What the devil are you talking about, Raventhorpe?” his friends enquired.
”Beauty,” the Marquis said, ”beauty that is untouched, unspoilt and hitherto unacclaimed.”
There was silence.
Then one of the Marquis's contemporaries who was rather more intelligent than the others asked, ”Are you telling us that you have found a new 'Incomparable' whom none of us have seen previously?”
”I should not have thought it difficult for you to understand plain English,” the Marquis replied, ”but if you don't believe me, then I suggest you accept the invitation you will receive from my grandmother, the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess of Wrexham, tomorrow for a ball that will take place at my house on Friday night.”
”A ball?” someone exclaimed. ”For an unknown beauty? Really, Raventhorpe, you never cease to surprise me!”
The Marquis rose from his chair.
”I am glad about that,” he said, ”for if there is one thing I find intolerably boring, it is the ceaseless repet.i.tion of the obvious. Someone new will give you something new to talk about!”
With that parting shot he walked out of the Coffee Room, leaving behind him a buzz of voices rising higher and higher.
He knew that what he had said would be repeated in the drawing rooms of London by the end of the evening. It would be augmented by reports from the older members of the community who had attended the d.u.c.h.ess's reception.
The Social world would be agog with curiosity long before the ball on Friday night.
Only the Marquis with his genius for organisation could possibly have arranged everything with such unprecedented speed.
By some magical means of his own, the invitations were printed and his servants had delivered them all over London by luncheon time the next day.
There was fortunately no other ball of any great consequence to be given on Friday night. Even if there had been, it was doubtful if anyone would have refused the Marquis's invitation while curiosity had mounted every hour of the following day.
Once the gossips were aware of who Ula was, the story of her mother's elopement became more and more romantic and more exciting every time it was repeated.
In a Society where every girl's ambition in her first Season was to find a husband with the highest possible t.i.tle, the greatest possessions and the most important position, what Lady Louise had done was considered inconceivable.