“I — I am not perfectly certain. I believe not.”
“Oh, that is too unkind!” he teased. “Did you not promise to let me put your name down for the minuet? I shall certainly do so before I leave Bath this evening. You will not be so cruel as to leave me without a lady to stand up with!”
She returned a light answer; he continued to talk easily on a number of trivial topics for the remainder of the drive; and set her down in Camden Place more enchanted than ever with her, and resolved upon a course of action fantastic enough to have appealed to the silliest damsel ever discovered between the marbled covers of a circulating library novel.
It was when Hero was returning on foot from Milsom Street later in the afternoon, that she fell in with George. She had been executing a commission for Lady Saltash, and he at once relieved her of her parcel, and insisted on escorting her back to Upper Camden Place. They had just crossed Bennet Street when Sherry’s curricle swept round the corner from Belmont. His start, and the expression of frozen amazement on his face were not lost on Hero; and as it did not occur to her (or for that matter, to George) that his astonishment was due not so much to seeing her as her companion, the last shreds of hope that he might have come to Bath to search for her were banished from her mind. While Sherry was disentangling his curricle from the phaeton, she hurried on towards Russell Street, almost dragging George with her. Himself no mean whip, other considerations were momentarily lost with him in the contemplation of the wreckage Sherry had caused.
“Well, of all the cow-handed things to do!” he exclaimed.
In the midst of her misery Hero could not help laughing, although a little shakily, at the accident. “It was so like Sherry!” she said. “And I know he will say it was all that poor man’s fault! Oh, George, he did not think to see me here! You were right. I never saw him look more shocked! Oh, dear, why was I ever born?”
“Did you see who was with him?” George demanded. “Ferdy! He must have told him he was coming here, just as he told me! I must say, I had not thought Ferdy would have had sense enough to have come along too. Depend upon it, he will be calling in Camden Place within the hour! But what the deuce is to be done now, Kitten? The mischief is in it that he has seen me with you, and he will ask me for your direction. What would you have me say to him?”
She was unable to make up her mind; but when they reached Camden Place, Lady Saltash took the decision out of her hands, and instructed George to furnish Sherry with the information that Hero was at present residing with her.
Hero, who had been walking about the room in some agitation, paused to interject in a tone of strong resolution: “George, if he should ask you if I am happy, you are to tell him that I have no time to be anything else, for I am for ever going to parties, and balls, and concerts! And tell him that I am become Miss Wantage again! And should you mind very much, dear George, telling him that I have a great many admirers in Bath? And if you dare to let him guess that I miss him quite dreadfully I will never speak to you again as long as I live!”
George promised to obey her instructions to the letter; but he looked a little concerned, for he had never seen her face so ravaged. However, Lady Saltash appeared to approve of the commands laid upon him, so he thought he could not do better than to carry them out. Having a lively curiosity to see Ferdy, and being convinced that that young gentleman would shortly arrive in Camden Place, he lingered in Lady Saltash’s drawing room. He had not long to wait; within a surprisingly short space of time a hackney carriage set Ferdy down at the door. His fawnlike countenance bore such a hunted expression that even Hero could not help laughing, as she joined George at the window to watch the arrival.
But no stress of circumstance ever made Ferdy forget his exquisite manners, and when he was ushered into the room a minute later, nothing could have been more polished than his bow, or more graceful than the salute he bestowed on Lady Saltash’s hand.
“Well, young man,” said her ladyship caustically, “you look like a rabbit with a savage dog after it! Is Sheringham hard upon your heels?”
“Thank God, ma’am, no!” he replied earnestly. “Very near thing, though! Greatest presence of mind needed!”
“Not to mention absence of body, I collect!”
He raised Hero’s hand to his lips. “Lady Sherry! Your very obedient! No wish to alarm you, but we are in the basket! Dashed unfortunate you should have been in Bennet Street just then! Poor Sherry cast into such a pucker! Had no notion you was in Bath, you see. Poor fellow was clean floored! Drove the curricle slap into a very pretty sort of a perch-phaeton, and left me to make his apologies while he dashed off to catch up with you. Didn’t find you, but he will, Kitten: you know Sherry! too game to be beaten on any suit!”
“Was he very angry, Ferdy?” she asked anxiously.
“Mad as fire!” he assured her. “Taken a pet at seeing George with you. Don’t like to think George has been gammoning him all this time. Says he only wants to get his hands on him, so I thought best to come round on the instant and warn you, George.”
“Good God, I ain’t afraid of Sherry!” George said, scornfully.
“No, no, George! Pluck to the backbone! All know that! The thing is, you don’t want to have Sherry calling you out again!”
“Let him do so if he chooses!” George replied instantly. “I shall be ready for him, I promise you!”
“No, George, you shall not! I won’t have Sherry killed!” Hero said quickly.
“That’s right!” Ferdy approved. “Only set up the backs of people if you kill Sherry, George! Always get over heavy ground as light as one can! Besides, my cousin, you know! Fond of him!”
“Yes, that’s all very well, but if he challenges me to fight I’m dashed if I’ll refuse him satisfaction!”
“For my sake, George!” begged Hero, clasping his arm.
“Oh, very well!” he said. “Mind you, Kitten, I’d not do it for anyone else, and I shall find it mighty hard as it is! Did you come here to warn Lady Sherry, Ferdy?”
“Thought I should do so,” Ferdy explained. “Gil away: couldn’t prevail on Sherry not to go to Bath: didn’t know you was here. You come to warn her too?”
“You are so kind to me, both of you!” Hero said warmly. “I am sure no one ever had such good friends! Indeed, I thank you, and I do trust, Ferdy, that Sherry is not very angry with you?”
“Too much on the fidgets to think whether I had anything to do with your being here,” replied Ferdy. “Went into the house in the devil of a miff — Lady Sheringham lodging in the Royal Crescent, you know — don’t know why: dare say he wanted to tell the Incomparable. Seemed to me the moment to go away. It ain’t that I’m afraid of Sherry, but I don’t know what I’m to say to him, and once he guesses I knew you was here, Kitten, he’s bound to try to get the whole story out of me.”
“We are to tell him the truth,” George said.
Ferdy’s eyes started at him. “Dash it, George, he’ll tear us limb from limb! What I mean is, hiding his wife from him, bamming him we hadn’t a notion where she was! Making a cake of him! Won’t stand it: not my cousin Sherry! Couldn’t expect it of him!”
“He won’t tear me limb from limb!” replied George, his lip curling.
Ferdy failed to derive any consolation from this, and said, in an indignant voice: “What’s that to the purpose? Very likely to tear me limb from limb! Never was up to his weight, besides I’m not handy with my fives. Beginning to wish I hadn’t come to Bath. What’s more, Sherry knows I’m putting up at the York, and I’ll lay a monkey he’s there now, ready to pounce on me the instant I step inside the place!”
“Nonsense! If I know Sherry, he’s a deal more likely to try to run me to earth!” said George bracingly. “In fact, I think I’ll go back to the White Hart now, for the sooner I clear this fence the better it will be for us all.”