Part 19 (1/2)

Mrs. Claudie indicated me. ”This is Mr. Howard,” she said. ”Let me introduce you to Lord Potter.”

Lord Potter affected an air of intense astonishment. ”This fellow!” he exclaimed. ”My dear lady, you have been victimised. This is an impudent adventurer, who spent his first night in Culbut in a gaol. He may be good enough company for Mr. Perry, but I am more surprised than I can say to find him here.”

There was an awkward silence, which I broke by saying: ”I am just as surprised to see Lord Potter here as he can be to see me. He knew perfectly well who I was. He could have stopped away if he didn't want to meet me.”

Lord Potter ignored this speech. ”I am very sorry to have to cast a cloud over your pleasant party, Mrs. Chanticleer,” he said, ”but this fellow is not what he pretends to be. He is no more a Highlander than I am. When I get back to town I shall put the police on to him. I expect it will be found that he has absconded from some big house and has left a lot of money behind him. He is masquerading as a poor man, but he will certainly get into trouble over it. I should advise you to pack him off, and have no more to do with him.”

Fortunately, Miriam was not near us at the time, but I saw Edward shouldering his way through the group of puzzled and rather scandalised people who surrounded us. n.o.body seemed inclined to say anything, and I had had time during Lord Potter's speech to reflect that he could not know that I was not a Highlander, and that he had put a weapon into my hands by his affectation of not knowing who I was.

”I will certainly leave your party if you wish me to, Mrs. Chanticleer,”

I said. ”Lord Potter and I have come up against one another before. It is true that when I first came into Culbut he managed to get me arrested for playing rather a foolish practical joke upon him, which he does not seem able to forget. But when he tells you he is sorry to disturb your party, he is not speaking the truth, because he can't have come here for any other purpose. He knew that he would find me here, and has not scrupled to break in on your brilliant and memorable gathering, with the object of ruining its success by his absurd charges.”

There were murmurs among the aristocratic dames who were gathered about us. Although Lord Potter was the dirtiest of the dirty, and held a high position among the men of the set, I heard afterwards that he was not popular among the ladies, not only because of his arrogance, but because, being a most eligible bachelor, he had omitted to marry so many of their daughters. Besides, Mrs. Claudie's party had gone with such a swing so far that it was felt to be too bad of him to come in in this way and try to spoil it.

But Mrs. Claudie showed herself full of tact and resource. She laughed lightly. ”I really can't be expected to settle a silly quarrel between two men,” she said. ”I have all my own quarrels to settle, and most of my women friends' besides. Come and have a shy at Siggy Rosenbaum's nuts, Lord Potter; and, Mr. Howard, you go and find Miriam and take her to have a few s'rimps.”

Perhaps Lord Potter would have allowed himself to hold over his account with me for the time being, and I certainly had no wish to carry it on then or at any time. But unfortunately Edward had by this time arrived fully on the scene, and with all his excellent qualities he was a trifle too weighty for a situation that wanted delicate handling.

”Mr. Howard is a guest in my father's house,” he said, his face pale and determined from the stress of the moment, ”and I cannot allow him to be insulted.”

”Oh, my dear Edward, n.o.body wants to insult anybody,” said Mrs. Claudie.

”Please let us go to the cocoanuts.”

But Lord Potter's temper had been aroused by the challenge. ”I have nothing to do with you or your father,” he said disagreeably. ”You have both uncla.s.sed yourselves. You can keep what company you please, as far as I am concerned. But when you take into your house a highly suspicious character, you ought to keep him to yourselves, and not foist him on to respectable company.”

Edward was about to reply hotly, but I didn't want to leave my case in his hands; he knew too much about me, and might give it away in his unthinking annoyance.

”How do you know I am staying with Mr. Perry?” I asked quickly. ”You pretended just now to be surprised to find I was _that_ Howard. And yet you heard my name when we first met, and you saw me go away with Mr.

Perry.”

”I will settle with you later, sir,” he said furiously. ”You have been going about in expensive clothes, and I have reason to believe you are an impostor, and are wanted by the police.”

”Oh, do leave off and come to the cocoanuts,” cried poor Mrs. Claudie, desolated at the prospect of a disturbance. But the situation was now beyond her.

”Perhaps you will say that my father and I are impostors, because we go about in clean clothes,” said Edward angrily. ”Mr. Howard is studying social conditions, as we are. He is a gentleman, as anyone can see, whatever he chooses to wear.”

Perhaps it is rather conceited of me to mention it, but there were murmurs of approval here. In my old Norfolk jacket and weather-beaten hat, I must have appeared all that was desirable in the matter of fas.h.i.+onable attire, according to Upsidonian standards.

Encouraged by these murmurs, I stuck to my point with Lord Potter. ”Will you answer a plain question?” I asked him. ”Did you know who I was when you came and tried to break up this delightful party, or did you tell Mrs. Chanticleer a lie?”

It was not much of a point, but it settled him. There were more murmurs, and Mrs. Claudie said reproachfully: ”You know you did refuse my invitation, Lord Potter. And if you did know who Mr. Howard was, it is not very friendly of you to come after all, and try to spoil our fun.”

The d.u.c.h.ess of Somersault, who was a great enough lady not to stand in awe of anybody, and had already married off all her daughters, now intervened:

”You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Hezekiah Potter,” she said in a loud clear voice. ”Anybody would think this was a reception by the wife of a millionaire by the way you poke yourself in on it and try to start a vulgar brawl. I shall be very pleased to welcome Mr. Howard at any time to my van, and I am not in the habit of receiving adventurers there.”

Such a bold, and, to me, almost overwhelming, offer of recognition from so great a lady naturally turned the tables completely in my favour.

Lord Potter shrugged his shoulders, one of which could be plainly seen through the discoloured cloth of his filthy jacket, muttered something into his ragged beard, and shuffled off in the dust towards Culbut. Mrs.