“It won’t do, Mama, Cressy and I should be thrown together in a way that must inevitably lead to a degree of intimacy which on all counts is to be avoided. Good God,that’s why I left London—so that she should not become better acquainted with me!”
“Yes, and I perfectly understand how vexatious it is for you to be obliged to remain strictly upon your guard. But it won’t be as bad as you anticipate! By the most amazing stroke of fortune I found Cosmo waiting for me in Hill Street when I returned from visiting Lady Stavely!”
“Cosmo?” he repeated blankly.
“Yes, Kit: Cosmo!” replied her ladyship, in a tone of determined patience. “My brother Cosmo—your uncle Cosmo! Dearest, must you stand like a stock? You cannot have forgotten him!”
“No, of course I haven’t forgotten him! But why you should think it a stroke of fortune to have found him in Hill Street is a matter quite beyond my comprehension!”
“Now, that,” said his mama triumphantly, “shows that you are much more shatterbrained than I am! Because Cosmo is the very thing we need! And Emma, too, of course. My dear, he must have been sent by providence—which is a thing that frequently happens, I find, when one is in flat despair: like my recalling in the very nick of time, when I thought myself wholly ruined, that I might very well apply to Edgbaston for a loan. Naturally, when I was being driven home from Mount Street, I was racking my brain to think how, at this season, to assemble a party here, which I perceived was most necessary on your account, Kit: to save you from being thrown entirely into Cressy’s company. I couldn’t hit on anyone, except, of course, poor Bonamy, because even if there had been more time at my disposal—and one can’t invite people all in a quack, you know, unless they are relations, or very close friends—no one wants to be in the country during the summer! Unless one is the sort of person who wishes to go on a tour, to observe mountains, and gorges, and the beauties of nature, which is the most exhausting and uncomfortable thing imaginable, I do assure you Kit! I cannot describe to you the miseries I endured when your father made me accompany him to Scotland once. I dare say it was all very fine, but when one has been jolted over abominable roads, and forced to put up at the most primitive inns, besides having to walk for miles and miles, one is in no case to admire scenery.”
“Do I understand, Mama,” said Kit, in a failing voice, “that you have invited Cosmo, and my aunt, to come and stay at Ravenhurst?”
“To be sure I have!” she replied, with a brilliant smile. “And it was exactly what he hoped I should do! At least, I fancy he meant to wheedle me into inviting him to visit us in Brighton, but you know what a nip-cheese he is, Kit! if he can but contrive to live at rack and manger somewhere he is content! In general, he goes to Baverstock in the summer, but it seems that he cannot do so this year, because your Aunt Baverstock won’t have him. I must say, one can’t blame her for not wanting him and poor Emma to be running tame about the house for weeks on end, however detestable one may think her. I have always avoided inviting them myself, though not as rudely as Amelia. But in this instance they are the very persons we need! Only consider, dearest! We scarcely ever see them, so they won’t know you from Evelyn; and they play whist! For chicken-stakes, too, which will exactly suit Lady Stavely. So I told Cosmo he might come—I mean, I invited him and Emma to come, and I said that we should be delighted to welcome Ambrose as well. He may serve to entertain Cressy, perhaps.”
“I’ve nothing to say against having my uncle and aunt to stay: in fact, it’s a good notion, love; but the last time I saw my cousin Ambrose he was the most odious little bounce I ever met in my life!” said Kit, entering a most ungrateful caveat.
“Yes, wasn’t he?” agreed her ladyship, quite unruffled. “But he was only a schoolboy then, after all! I dare say he may have improved. In any event, we are obliged to have him as well, because Cosmo says he means to keep him under his eye during the whole of the Long Vacation, poor boy, and not give him another groat to spend until he goes up to Oxford again in October, on account of his having run monstrously into debt. Or so Cosmo says, but I dare say it is no such thing, and he owes no more than a few hundreds. But what with that, and his having been rusticated last term, it does sound as if he must have improved, doesn’t it? I don’t know why he was rusticated—Cosmo primmed up his mouth when I asked him, so I collect there had been petticoat dealings—but I do know that you and Evelyn were, at the end of one Hilary term, and even your papa only thought it a very good joke!”
Mr Fancot, regarding her with a fascinated eye, drew an audible breath. “No, Mama, I do not think it sounds as if he must have improved! On the contrary, it sounds as if he were growing to be a pretty loose fish! And let me inform you, love, that when Evelyn and I were sent down for the rest of the term, it was not because of petticoat dealings! Merely one of our hoaxes—as a matter of fact, the best rig we ever ran!”
“Well, never mind, dear one!” she said placably. “No doubt it is just as you say! I merely thought that if he is got into debt he does at least sound as if he were more of a Cliffe than Cosmo, who is such a scratch that one can’t help but wonder whether he is not a changeling! It doesn’t signify: indeed, we must hope that Ambrose hasn’t improved too much, because it would never do if Cressy were to develop a tendre for him. You do perceive that things won’t be so very bad, don’t you?”
“To be sure!” he responded, with suspicious alacrity. “You have behaved in the nackiest way, Mama, so that all we have to do now is to hope that Lady Stavely will find my uncle and aunt so intolerably boring that she will rapidly bring her visit to a close.”
She rose, and picked up her hat from the table. Brushing Kit’s chin with its plumes, she retorted: “On the contrary, there is a great deal more to be done—though I know very well you won’t concern yourself with the preparations that must be made, horrid creature that you are! And though I dare say Lady Stavely will think Cosmo and Emma dead bores, she will be pleased to see Bonamy, don’t you agree? She has been acquainted with him for ever, and he is a very fine whist-player!”
Kit gasped. “Good God, I thought that was nothing but a bubble! You don’t mean to tell me you’ve really persuaded Ripple to leave Brighton to come into the country, which he dislikes quite as much as you do, and play chicken-whist with a griffin like Lady Stavely?”
She lifted a saucy eyebrow at him. “What makes you suppose there was any need of persuasion, Master Rudesby?”
“I beg your pardon, Mama! But this is devotion indeed!”
She chuckled. “Yes, but the truth is that he is excessively good-natured, besides having been in the habit for years and years of thinking he loves me better even than his dinner. He doesn’t, of course, but I never let him suspect that I know it. Which reminds me that I must take care to see that his favourite dishes are set before him. Yes, and to speak to the cook about sending to Brighton every day to procure fresh fish. Then, since we are at Ravenhurst, I think we must hold a Public Day, which we didn’t last year, because of being in mourning for Papa. Oh, dear, what a vast quantity of things “must be attended to! I shouldn’t wonder at it if I were prostrate by the time our guests arrive!”