“Very well, then; we can get out this way,” and moving to the far end of the yew-treed garden, they descended some steps into a long grassy avenue, and, passing through a wicket gate, had soon arrived at the Rectory. Dinny stood in its creepered porch, behind her aunt’s hat. The door stood open, and a dim panelled hallway with a scent of pot-pourri and old wood, conveyed a kind of invitation. A female voice from within called:
“A—lan!”
A male voice answered: “Hal—lo!”
“D’you mind cold lunch?”
“There’s no bell,” said Lady Mont; “we’d better clap.” They clapped in unison.
“What the deuce?” A young man in grey flannels had appeared in a doorway. He had a broad brown face, dark hair, and grey eyes, deep and direct.
“Oh!” he said. “Lady Mont… Hi! Jean!” Then, meeting Dinny’s eyes round the edge of the hat, he smiled as they do in the Navy.
“Alan, can you and Jean dine to-night? Dinny, this is Alan Tasburgh. D’you like my hat?”
“It’s a topper, Lady Mont.”
A girl, made all of a piece and moving as if on steel springs, was coming towards them. She wore a fawn-coloured sleeveless jumper and skirt, and her arms and cheeks were fully as brown. Dinny saw what her aunt meant. The face, broad across the cheek-bones, tapered to the chin, the eyes were greenish grey and sunk right in under long black lashes; they looked straight out with a light in them; the nose was fine, the brow low and broad, the shingled hair dark brown. ‘I wonder!’ thought Dinny. Then, as the girl smiled, a little thrill went through her.
“This is Jean,” said her aunt: “my niece, Dinny Cherrell.”
A slim brown hand clasped Dinny’s firmly.
“Where’s your father?” continued Lady Mont.
“Dad’s away at some parsonical Conference. I wanted him to take me, but he wouldn’t.”
“Then I expect he’s in London really, doin’ theatres.”
Dinny saw the girl flash a look at her aunt, decide that it was Lady Mont, and smiled. The young man laughed.
“So you’ll both come to dinner? Eight-fifteen. Dinny, we must go back to lunch. Swallows!” added Lady Mont round the brim of her hat, and passed out through the porch.
“There’s a house-party,” said Dinny to the young man’s elevated eyebrows. “She means tails and white tie.”
“Oh! Ah! Best bib and tucker, Jean.”
The two stood in the porchway arm in arm. ‘Very attractive!’ Dinny thought.
“Well?” said her aunt, in the grass avenue again.
“Yes, I quite saw the cub. She’s beautiful, I think. But I should keep her on a lead.”
“There’s Boswell and Johnson!” exclaimed Lady Mont, as if they were in the singular. “Gracious! It must be past two, then!”
CHAPTER 9
Some time after lunch, for which Dinny and her aunt were late, Adrian and the four younger ladies, armed with such shooting sticks as had been left by the ‘guns,’ proceeded down a farm lane towards where the main ‘drive’ of the afternoon would debouch. Adrian walked with Diana and Cicely Muskham, and ahead of them Dinny walked with Fleur. These cousins by marriage had not met for nearly a year, and had in any case but slender knowledge of each other. Dinny studied the head which her aunt had recommended to her. It was round and firm and well carried under a small hat. The pretty face wore a rather hard but, she decided, very capable expression. The trim figure was as beautifully tailored as if it had belonged to an American.
Dinny felt that she would at least get common-sense from a source so neat.
“I heard your testimonial read in the Police Court, Fleur.”
“Oh! that. It was what Hilary wanted, of course. I really don’t know anything about those girls. They simply don’t let one. Some people, of course, can worm themselves into anybody’s confidence. I can’t; and I certainly don’t want to. Do you find the country girls about you any easier?”
“Round us they’ve all had to do with our family so long that one knows pretty well all there is to know before they do themselves.”
Fleur scrutinised her.
“Yes, I daresay you’ve got the knack, Dinny. You’ll make a wonderful ancestress; but I don’t quite know who ought to paint you. It’s time someone came along with the Early Italian touch. The pre-Raphaelites hadn’t got it a bit; their pictures lacked music and humour. YOU’LL have to be done with both.”
“Do tell me,” said Dinny, disconcerted, “was Michael in the House when those questions were asked about Hubert?”
“Yes; he came home very angry.”
“Good!”
“He thought of bringing the thing up again, but it was the day but one before they rose. Besides, what does the House matter? It’s about the last thing people pay attention to nowadays.”
“My father, I’m afraid, paid terrific attention to those questions.”
“Yes, the last generation. But the only thing Parliament does that really gets the Public now, is the Budget. And no wonder; it all comes back to money.”
“Do you say that to Michael?”
“I don’t have to. Parliament now is just a taxing machine.”
“Surely it still makes laws?”
“Yes, my dear; but always after the event; it consolidates what has become public practice, or at least public feeling. It never initiates. How can it? That’s not a democratic function. If you want proof, look at the state of the country! It’s the last thing Parliament bothers about.”
“Who does initiate, then?”
“Whence doth the wind blow? Well, the draughts begin in the coulisses. Great places, the coulisses! Whom do you want to stand with when we get to the guns?”
“Lord Saxenden.”
Fleur gazed at her: “Not for his beaux jeux, and not for his beau titre. Why, then?”
“Because I’ve got to get at him about Hubert, and I haven’t much time.”
“I see. Well, I’ll give you a warning, my dear. Don’t take Saxenden at his face value. He’s an astute old fox, and not so old either. And if there is one thing he enjoys more than another, it’s his quid pro quo. Have you got a quid for him? He’ll want cash down.”
Dinny grimaced.
“I shall do what I can. Uncle Lawrence has already given me some pointers.”
“‘Have a care; she’s fooling thee,’” hummed Fleur. “Well, I shall go to Michael; it makes him shoot better, and he wants it, poor dear. The Squire and Bart will be glad to do without us. Cicely, of course, will go to Charles; she’s still honey-moonish. That leaves Diana for the American.”
“And I hope,” said Dinny, “she’ll put him off his shots.”
“I should say nothing would. I forgot Adrian; he’ll have to sit on his stick and think about bones and Diana. Here we are. See? Through this gate. There’s Saxenden, they’ve given him the warm corner. Go round by that stile and come on him from behind. Michael will be jammed away at the end, he always gets the worst stand.”
She parted from Dinny and went on down the lane. Conscious that she had not asked Fleur what she had wanted to, Dinny crossed to the stile, and climbing over, stalked Lord Saxenden warily from the other side. The peer was moving from one hedge to the other in the corner of the field to which he had been assigned. Beside a tall stick, to a cleft in which was attached a white card with a number on it, stood a young keeper holding two guns, and at his feet a retriever dog was lying with his tongue out. The fields of roots and stubble on the far side of the lane rose rather steeply, and it was evident to Dinny—something of an expert—that birds driven off them would come high and fast. ‘Unless,’ she thought, ‘there’s fresh cover just behind,’ and she turned to look. There was not. She was in a very large grass field and the nearest roots were three hundred yards away at least. ‘I wonder,’ she thought, ‘if he shoots better or worse with a woman watching. Shouldn’t think he had any nerves.’ Turning again, she saw that he had noticed her.
“Do you mind me, Lord Saxenden? I’ll be very quiet.”