"Oh, Sir Gregory! Paris? Then tell me-please, tell me-have you seen my darling Devil?"
"Why, yes, madam," responded Markham, handing her the glass he held.
She sipped the negus, and gave it to the Chevalier to take care of.
"I declare, I quite love you then!" she exclaimed. "What is he doing, and, oh! when will he return to England?"
Sir Gregory smiled.
"How can I say?" he drawled. "I fear monsieur s'amuse!"
She flirted her fan before her face.
"Dreadful creature!" she cried. "How dare you say such things?"
"Belmanoir?" inquired Lord D'Egmont, twirling his cane. "Enamoured of the Pompadour, is he not-saving your presence, Lady Lavvy!"
Lavinia let fall her fan.
"The Pompadour! He had best have a care!"
"I believe there has already been some unpleasantness between his Majesty and the fair Jeanne on the subject of Devil. Since then she is supposed to have turned on him a cold shoulder."
"I heard 'twas he wearied of madame," said Markham.
"Well, whichever it was, I am glad the episode is closed," decided Lavinia. "'Tis too dangerous a game to play with Louis' mistresses. Oh, mon cher Chevalier! if I had not forgot your presence! But I am sure you say dreadful ill-natured things of our George, now don't you? Oh, and have you held my negus all this time? How monstrous good of you! There, I will drink it, and Julian shall take the glass away . . . Voilà!" She handed it to D'Egmont and rapped Mr. Selwyn's knuckles with her fan, looking archly up at him as he stood behind her chair.
"Naughty man! Will you have done whispering in my ear? I vow I will not listen to your impudences! No, nor laugh at them neither! Sir Gregory, you have given me no answer. When will Tracy return? For the Cavendish rout on Wednesday week? Ah, say yes!"
"Certainly I will say yes, fair tormentor! But, to tell the truth, Tracy said no word of coming to London when I saw him."
She pouted.
"Now I hate you, Sir Gregory! And he has been absent since May! Oh, Julian, back already? You shall escort me to the fireworks then. Oh, my fan! Where is it? I know I dropped it on the ground-Selwyn, if you have taken it-Oh, Dicky, you have it! Thank you! See, I am going with Julian, and you may ogle Mrs. Clive, whom I see walking over there-yes, positively you may, and I shall not be jealous! Very well, Julian, I am coming! Chevalier, I shall hope to see you at the rout on Wednesday week, but you must wait upon me before then."
The Frenchman brightened.
"Madame is too good. I may then call at Wyncham 'Ouse? Vraiment, I shall but exist until then!" In a perfectly audible whisper, he confided to Wilding that "miladi était ravissante! mais ravissante!"
Lady Lavinia went off on her gratified cavalier's arm, encountering many bows and much admiration as she passed down the walk, leaving her husband not to ogle the beautiful Kitty, as she had advised, but to saunter away in the direction of the Pavilion in company with Tom Wilding and Markham.
D'Egmont guided my lady into one of the winding alleys, and they presently came out on a large lawn, dotted over with people of all conditions. Towards them was coming Lavinia's brother-Colonel Lord Robert Belmanoir-very richly clad and rakish in appearance. When he saw his sister, a look of surprise came into his florid face, and he made her a sweeping leg.
"'Pon my honour-Lavinia!"
My lady was not fond of her brother, and acknowledged the salutation with a brief nod.
"I am delighted to see you, Robert," she said primly.
"The mere word 'delighted' in no way expresses my sensations," replied the Colonel in the drawling, rather unpleasant voice peculiar both to him and to the Duke. "Your servant, D'Egmont. I imagined, Lavvy, that you were in the country?"
"Richard brought me to town last Tuesday," she answered.
"How unwise of him!" taunted the Colonel. "Or had he no choice?"
She tossed her head angrily.
"If you are minded to be disagreeable, Robert, pray do not let me detain you!" she flashed.
D'Egmont was quite unembarrased by this interchange of civilities. He knew the Belmanoir family too well to be made uncomfortable by their bickerings.
"Shall we leave him?" he asked Lavinia, smiling.
"Yes," she pouted. "He is determined to be unpleasant."
"My dear sister! On the contrary, I believe I can offer you some amusement. Lovelace is in town."
"Captain Harold?" she cried incredulously.
"The same."
"Oh, Bob!" Impulsively she withdrew her hand from Julian's arm, transferring it to the Colonel's. "I must see him at once! To think he is returned after all these years! Quick, Julian, dear lad-go and find him-and tell him 'tis I, Lavinia, who want him! You know him, do you not? Yes-I thought you did. Send him to me at once!-at once!"
D'Egmont looked very crestfallen at having his walk with the goddess thus cut short, but he had perforce to kiss her hand and to obey.
"Yes. I thought you would be pleased," remarked Lord Robert, and chuckled. "Allow me to point out to you that there is a chair-two chairs-in fact, quite a number of chairs-immediately behind you."
She sat down, chattering excitedly.
"Why, 'tis nigh on five years since I saw Harry! Has he changed? Lud! but he will deem me an old woman! Is he like to be in town for long, I wonder?-Dear me, Bob, look at the two ladies over behind that seat!-Gracious! what extraordinary coifs, to be sure! And cherry ribbons, too! . . . Tell me, Bob, where did you meet Harry Lovelace?"
The Colonel, who, far from attending to her monologue, had been sending amorous glances across to a palpably embarrassed girl, who hung on her papa's arm while that gentleman stopped to speak to a stout dowager, brought his gaze reluctantly back to his sister.
"What's that you say, Lavvy?"
"How provoking of you not to listen to me! I asked where you met Harold."
"Where I met him? Let me see-where did I meet him? Oh, I remember! At the Cocoa-Tree, a fortnight since."
"And he is altered?"
"Not in any way, dear sister. He is the same mad, reckless rake-hell as ever. And unmarried."
"How delightful! Oh, I shall be so glad to see him again!"
"You must present him to Richard," sneered the Colonel, "as an old flame."
"I must, indeed," she agreed, his sarcasm passing over her head. "Oh, I see him! Look! Coming across the grass!"
She rose to meet the tall, fair young Guardsman who came swiftly towards her, curtsying as only Lady Lavinia could curtsy, with such stateliness and coquetry.
"Captain Lovelace!"-she put forward both her hands.
Lovelace caught them in his, and bent his head over them so that the soft, powdered curls of his loose wig fell all about his face.
"Lady Lavinia!-Enchantress!-I can find no words! I am dumb!"
"And I!"
"In that case," drawled the Colonel, "you are not like to be very entertaining company. Pray give me leave!" He bowed and sauntered away down the path with a peculiarly malicious smile on his lips.
Lavinia and Lovelace found two chairs, slightly apart from the rest, and sat down, talking eagerly.
"Captain Lovelace, I believe you had forgot me?" she rallied him.
"Never!" he answered promptly. "Not though you well-nigh broke my heart!"
"No, no! I did not do that. I never meant to hurt you."
He shook his head disbelievingly.
"You rejected me to marry some other man: do you say you did not mean to?"
"You naughty Harry! . . . You never married yourself?"
"I?" The delicate features expressed a species of hurt horror. "I marry? No! I was ever faithful to my first love."
She unfurled her fan, fluttering it delightedly.
"Oh! Oh! Always, Harold? Now speak the truth!"
"Nearly always," he amended.
"Disagreeable man! You admit you had lapses then?"
"So very trivial, my dear," he excused himself. "And I swear my first action on coming to London was to call at Wyncham House. Imagine my disappointment-my incalculable gloom (on the top of having already dropped a thousand at faro) when I found the shell void, and Venus-"