Part 64 (1/2)
”I shall introduce you to the princ.i.p.al leaders of society; know them and study them: I do not advise you to attempt to do more,--that is, to attempt to become the fas.h.i.+on. It is a very expensive ambition: some men it helps, most men it ruins. On the whole, you have better cards in your hands. Dance or not as it pleases you; don't flirt. If you flirt people will inquire into your fortune,--an inquiry that will do you little good; and flirting entangles a young man into marrying. That would never do. Here we are.”
In two minutes more they were in the great ballroom, and Randal's eyes were dazzled with the lights, the diamonds, the blaze of beauty.
Audley presented him in quick succession to some dozen ladies, and then disappeared amidst the crowd. Randal was not at a loss: he was without shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed it. He answered the languid questions put to him with a certain spirit that kept up talk, and left a favourable impression of his agreeable qualities. But the lady with whom he got on the best was one who had no daughters out, a handsome and witty woman of the world,--Lady Frederick Coniers.
”It is your first ball at Almack's then, Mr. Leslie?”
”My first.”
”And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you think of that pretty girl in pink?”
”I see her--but I cannot think of her.”
”You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your first object is to know who is who.”
”I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day I should like to distinguish the portraits that ill.u.s.trate the memoir.”
”Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall see the different notabilites enter one by one, and observe without being observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr.
Egerton's.”
”Mr. Egerton, then,” said Randal,--as they threaded their way through the s.p.a.ce without the rope that protected the dancers,--”Mr. Egerton has had the good fortune to win your esteem even for his friends, however obscure?”
”Why, to say truth, I think no one whom Mr. Egerton calls his friend need long remain obscure, if he has the ambition to be otherwise; for Mr. Egerton holds it a maxim never to forget a friend nor a service.”
”Ah, indeed!” said Randal, surprised.
”And therefore,” continued Lady Frederick, ”as he pa.s.ses through life, friends gather round him. He will rise even higher yet. Grat.i.tude, Mr.
Leslie, is a very good policy.”
”Hem,” muttered Mr. Leslie.
They had now gained the room where tea and bread and b.u.t.ter were the homely refreshments to the habitues of what at that day was the most exclusive a.s.sembly in London. They ensconced themselves in a corner by a window, and Lady Frederick performed her task of cicerone with lively ease, accompanying each notice of the various persons who pa.s.sed panoramically before them with sketch and anecdote, sometimes good-natured, generally satirical, always graphic and amusing.
By and by Frank Hazeldean, having on his arm a young lady of haughty air and with high though delicate features, came to the tea-table.
”The last new Guardsman,” said Lady Frederick; ”very handsome, and not yet quite spoiled. But he has got into a dangerous set.”
RANDAL.--”The young lady with him is handsome enough to be dangerous.”
LADY FREDERICK (laughing).--”No danger for him there,--as yet at least.
Lady Mary (the Duke of Knaresborough's daughter) is only in her second year. The first year, nothing under an earl; the second, nothing under a baron. It will be full four years before she comes down to a commoner.
Mr. Hazeldean's danger is of another kind. He lives much with men who are not exactly mauvais ton, but certainly not of the best taste. Yet he is very young; he may extricate himself,--leaving half his fortune behind him. What, he nods to you! You know him?”
”Very well; he is nephew to Mr. Egerton.”
”Indeed! I did not know that. Hazeldean is a new name in London. I heard his father was a plain country gentleman, of good fortune, but not that he was related to Mr. Egerton.”
”Half-brother.”
”Will Mr. Egerton pay the young gentleman's debts? He has no sons himself.”