Part 56 (1/2)
”Ta! ta! ta! you are a sailor, green as sea-weed.”
”Mr. Bazalgette, as I am a gentleman, she never has encouraged me to love her as I do.”
”Your statement, sir, is one which becomes a gentleman--under the circ.u.mstances. But I happen to have watched her. It is a thing I have taken the trouble to do for some time past. It was my interest in you that made me curious, and apprehensive--on your account.”
”Then, if you have watched her, you must have seen her avoid me.”
”Pooh! pooh! that was drawing the bait; these old stagers can all do that.”
”Old stagers!” and David looked as if blasphemy had been uttered.
Bazalgette wore a grin of infinite irony.
”Don't be shocked,” said he; ”of course, I mean old in flirtation; no lady is old in years.”
”_She_ is not, at all events.”
”It is agreed. There are legal fictions, and why not social ones?”
”I don't understand you, sir; and, in truth, it is all a puzzle to me.
You don't seem angry with me?”
”Why, of course not, my poor fellow; I pity you.”
”Yet you discourage me, Mr. Bazalgette.”
”But not from any selfish motive. I want to spare you the mortification that is in store for you. Remember, I have seen the _end_ of about a dozen of you.”
”Good Heavens! And what is the end of us?”
”The cold shoulder without a day's warning, and another fool set in your place, and the house door slammed in your face, etc., etc. Oh, with her there is but one step from flirtation to detestation. Not one of her flames is her friend at this moment.”
David hung his head, and his heart turned sick; there was a silence of some seconds, during which Bazalgette eyed him keenly. ”Sir,” said David, at last, ”your words go through me like a knife.”
”Never mind. It is a friendly surgeon's knife, not an a.s.sa.s.sin's.”
”Yet you say it is only out of regard for me you warn me so against her.”
”I repeat it.”
”Then, sir, if, by Heaven's mercy, you should be mistaken in her character--if, little as I deserve it, I should succeed in winning her regard--I might reckon on your permission--on your kind--support?”
”Hardly,” said Mr. Bazalgette, hastily. He then stared at the honest earnest face that was turned toward him. ”Well,” said he, ”you modest gentlemen have a marvelous fund of a.s.surance at bottom. No, sir; with the exception of this piece of friendly advice I shall be strictly neutral. In return for it, if you should succeed, be so good as to take her out of the house, that is the only stipulation I venture to propose.”
”I should be sure to do that,” cried David, lifting his eyes to Heaven with rapture; ”but I shall not have the chance.”
”So I keep telling you. You might as well hope to tempt a statue of the G.o.ddess Flirtation. She infinitely prefers wealth and vanity to anything, even to vice.”
”Vice, sir! is that a term for us to apply to a lady like her, whom we are all unworthy to approach?” and David turned very red.
”Well, _you_ need not quarrel with _me_ about her, as _I_ don't with _you.”_