“Do I understand, my dear, that you consented to elope with the gentleman?” inquired Miss Merriot.
The black curls were nodded vigorously. “I thought it would be so romantic,” sighed Letty. She brightened. “And so it was, when you hit him,” she added, turning to Peter. “It was positively marvellous!”
“Did you elope with him for the romance of it?” asked Mr Merriot, amused.
“That, and because of my papa,” said Letty. “And because of being bored. Oh, have you never known, ma’am, what it is to be cooped up, and kept so close that you are ready to die of boredom?”
“In truth, I’ve led something of a rover’s life,” said Miss Merriot. “But continue, child.”
“I am an heiress,” announced Letty in tones the most lugubrious.
“My felicitations, ma’am,” bowed Mr Merriot.
“Felicitations! I wish I were a pauper, sir! If a man comes to the house my papa must needs imagine he is after my money. He said that of Gregory Markham. And indeed I think he was right,” she said reflectively. “Ma’am, I think fathers are — are the veriest plague.”
“We have suffered, child,” said Miss Merriot.
“Then, ma’am, you will feel for me. My papa puts a hateful disagreeable woman to be my duenna, and I am so guarded and sheltered that there is nothing amusing ever happens to me, in spite of having been brought to town. Add to all that, ma’am, Sir Anthony Fanshawe, and you will see why I had come to the pitch of doing anything only to get away!”
“I feel we are to deplore Sir Anthony, Kate,” said Mr Merriot.
“It is not that I am not fond of him,” Letty explained. “I have always been fond of him, but conceive, ma’am, being required to marry a man whom you have known all your life! A man, too, of his years and disposition!”
“I perceive in you a victim of parental tyranny, child,” said Miss Merriot. “We consign Sir Anthony to perdition.”
Letty giggled at that. “Oh, never, ma’am! ’Tis a model of prudence and the virtues! And thirty-five years old at the very least!”
Mr Merriot flicked a speck of snuff from his sleeve.
“And to escape this greybeard, hence the young Adonis yonder, I suppose?”
Miss Letty hung her head. “He — he was not very young either, I suppose,” she confessed. “And I have been very silly, and wicked, I know. But indeed I thought him vastly more entertaining than Tony. You could not for your life imagine Tony excited, or in a scrape, or even hurried. And Gregory said such pretty things, and it was all so romantic I was misled.”
“The matter’s plain to the meanest intelligence, madam,” Mr Merriot assured her, “I discover in myself a growing desire to meet the phlegmatic Sir Anthony.”
His sister laughed. “Ay, that’s to your taste. But what’s the next step?”
“Oh, she goes with us along to London. Pray, ma’am, may we know your name?”
“’Tis Letitia Grayson, sir. My papa is Sir Humphrey Grayson of Grayson Court, in Gloucestershire. He is afflicted with the gout. I expect you may see him by and by, for I left a note for him, and he would be bound to find it.”
“We await his coming, then,” said Miss Merriot. “It solves the matter. My Peter, bespeak a bedchamber for Miss Grayson.”
A confiding hand was slipped into Kate’s as Mr Merriot strolled away to the door. “Please will you call me Letty?” said Miss Grayson shyly.
Mr Merriot made an odd grimace at the panel of the door, and went through into the taproom.
Mine host had barely recovered from his very natural bewilderment at finding that the supposed fugitive was still in his house when there came the sound of a chaise bowling at a rare speed along the road. It drew up at the inn, and in the light of the lamps Mr Merriot saw his servant jump down. He pursed his lips in a soundless whistle. “This should be papa,” he said pensively. “Your fourth room will be wanted, host.” He went back into the coffee-room to find that Miss Letty was at the window already, peering out.
“Your papa, as I believe,” announced Mr Merriot.
“I am afraid it is,” agreed Miss Letty. “Yet with the gout plaguing him so much — oh lud! As I live, ’tis Anthony!”
Miss Merriot threw her brother a comical look. “And so your desires are fulfilled, child. We are all impatience, Letty.”
Mr Merriot stood by her chair, and took snuff. The door opened to admit a large gentleman, who came in very leisurely.
“Lud, it’s a mammoth!” said Miss Merriot, for her brother’s private ear.
“Oh, are you jealous?” he retorted.
The large gentleman paused on the threshold and put up his quizzing-glass, through which he blandly surveyed the room. He was a very large gentleman indeed, with magnificent shoulders and a fine leg. He seemed rather to fill the room; he had certainly a presence, and a personality. He wore a tie wig of plain brown, and carried his hat under his arm. The hilt of his sword peeped out from between the folds of his greatcoat, but in his hand he held a cane.
“The gentleman would appear to be annoyed,” murmured Mr Merriot, looking at the lines about the newcomer’s mouth and square jowl.
“La, my dear, how can you say so?” marveled Miss Merriot, seeing the large gentleman’s grey eyes calm and bored. She rose with an air, and swept a curtsey. The gentleman must not be allowed to dominate the room thus. It seemed he had the way of it. “Make your leg, child,” she threw over her shoulder at Peter. “We are under observation.”
The sternness about Sir Anthony’s mouth vanished. He smiled and showed a row of very even white teeth. He bowed with easy grace. “Madam, your most obedient! Sir, yours!”
Mr Merriot took Miss Letty by the hand. “Permit me to restore to you Miss Grayson, sir,” he said, ignoring an indignant protest from the lady.
Sir Anthony showed no desire to receive Miss Grayson, who looked him defiantly between the eyes. He smiled still, but he did not offer to take her hand. “You should be whipped, Letty,” he said pleasantly.
Miss Grayson flushed. “’Deed, sir, and did you bring your cane for that purpose?” she demanded.
“No, my dear, but I should be happy to benefit you that far.”
Peter Merriot was amused, and permitted his chuckle to be heard. “Faith, it’s a stern suitor.”
“You are — very rude — and — and — and hateful!” declared Miss Grayson, outraged.
Sir Anthony laid down his cane and his hat, and began to take off his greatcoat. As one who had no further interest in Miss Grayson he took out his snuff-box, unfobbed it, and held it out to Mr Merriot. His hand was very white and finely shaped, but it looked to have some strength. “Sir,” said he, smiling sleepily for all his grey eyes were alert beneath their rather heavy lids, “you will permit me to thank you on behalf of my friend, Sir Humphrey Grayson, for your services to his daughter.”
Mr Merriot helped himself to a pinch of snuff. Grey eyes met grey; the humorous look played around Mr Merriot’s mouth. “Lud, here’s a solemnity!” he said. “I am Miss Grayson’s servant to command.”
Miss Grayson forgot her dignity. “Tony, ’twas wonderful! His sword was out in a trice, and I thought he was about to run that odious Markham right through the body, but just as it was too monstrously exciting for words the point seemed to flash upwards and the hilt caught Markham on the chin.” She demonstrated with a small fist to her own pretty chin. “He went down like a stone,” she ended dramatically. Her glance fell on Miss Merriot by the fire. “And Miss Merriot too was splendid, Tony, for she pretended to swoon in Markham’s arms.”
Mr Merriot looked down at his sister something quizzically. “My dear, I eclipse you,” he murmured. He turned again to Sir Anthony. “Thus we mourn our departed suitor. Now where did you find my man John?” He began to pour wine, and handed one glass to the large gentleman.
“At Stilton,” Sir Anthony replied. “Just before I saw my friend Mr Markham. He was endeavoring to hide a chaise and horses which — er — aroused my suspicions. He was induced to confide in me.”
Mr Merriot looked meditatively at that square handsome face. “I wonder why?” he said, for he knew his John.