Part 9 (1/2)

”We shall find her greatly elated, doubtless,” Lady Debarry was saying.

”She has been in the shade so long.”

”Ah, poor thing!” said Sir Maximus. ”A fine woman she was in her bloom.

I remember the first county ball she attended we were all ready to fight for the sake of dancing with her. I always liked her from that time--I never swallowed the scandal about her myself.”

”If we are to be intimate with her,” said Lady Debarry, ”I wish you would avoid making such allusions, Sir Maximus. I should not like Selina and Harriet to hear them.”

”My dear, I should have forgotten all about the scandal, only you remind me of it sometimes,” retorted the baronet, smiling and taking out his snuff-box.

”These sudden turns of fortune are often dangerous to an excitable const.i.tution,” said Lady Debarry, not choosing to notice her husband's epigram. ”Poor Lady Alicia Methurst got heart-disease from a sudden piece of luck--the death of her uncle, you know. If Mrs. Transome was wise she would go to town--she can afford it now, and consult Dr.

Truncheon. I should say myself he would order her digitalis: I have often guessed exactly what a prescription would be. But it certainly was one of her weak points to think she understood medicine better than other people.”

”She's a healthy woman enough, surely: see how upright she is, and she rides about like a girl of twenty.”

”She is so thin that she makes me shudder.”

”Pooh! she's slim and active; women are not bid for by the pound.”

”Pray don't be so coa.r.s.e.”

Sir Maximus laughed and showed his good teeth, which made his laughter very becoming. The carriage stopped, and they were soon ushered to Mrs.

Transome's sitting-room, where she was working at her worsted embroidery. A little daily embroidery had been a constant element in Mrs. Transome's life; but that soothing occupation of taking st.i.tches to produce what neither she nor any one else wanted, was then the resource of many a well-born and unhappy woman.

She received much warm congratulation and pressure of her hand with perfect composure of manner; but she became paler than usual, and her hands turned quite cold. The Debarrys did not yet know what Harold's politics were.

”Well, our lucky youngster is come in the nick of time,” said Sir Maximus: ”if he'll stand, he and Philip can run in harness together and keep out both the Whigs.”

”It is really quite a providential thing--his returning just now,” said Lady Debarry. ”I couldn't help thinking that something would occur to prevent Philip from having such a man as Peter Garstin for his colleague.”

”I call my friend Harold a youngster,” said Sir Maximus, ”for, you know, I remember him only as he was when that portrait was taken.”

”That is a long while ago,” said Mrs. Transome. ”My son is much altered, as you may imagine.”

There was a confused sound of voices in the library while this talk was going on. Mrs. Transome chose to ignore that noise, but her face, from being pale, began to flush a little.

”Yes, yes, on the outside, I dare say. But he was a fine fellow--I always liked him. And if anybody should ask me what I should choose for the good of the country, I couldn't have thought of anything better than having a young Transome for a neighbor who will take an active part. The Transomes and the Debarrys were always on the right side together in old days. Of course he'll stand--he has made up his mind to it?”

The need for an answer to this embarra.s.sing question was deferred by the increase of inarticulate sounds accompanied by a bark from the library, and the sudden appearance at the tapestry-hung doorway of old Mr.

Transome with a cord around his waist, playing a very poor-paced horse for a black-maned little boy about three years old, who was urging him on with loud encouraging noises and occasional thumps from a stick which he wielded with difficulty. The old man paused with a vague smile at the doorway while the baronet got up to speak to him. Nimrod snuffed at his master's legs to ascertain that he was not hurt, and the little boy, finding something new to be looked at, let go the cord and came round in front of the company, dragging his stick, and standing at a safe war-dancing distance as he fixed his great black eyes on Lady Debarry.

”Dear me, what a splendid little boy, Mrs. Transome! why--it cannot be--can it be--that you have the happiness to be a grandmamma?”

”Yes; that is my son's little boy.”

”Indeed!” said Lady Debarry, really amazed. ”I never heard you speak of his marriage. He has brought you home a daughter-in-law, then?”

”No,” said Mrs. Transome, coldly; ”she is dead.”

”O--o--oh!” said Lady Debarry, in a tone ludicrously undecided between condolence, satisfaction, and general mistiness. ”How very singular--I mean that we should not have heard of Mr. Harold's marriage. But he's a charming little fellow: come to me, you round-cheeked cherub.”