“I don’t doubt it,” he said, smiling a little.

Her colour mounted still more alarmingly; but after glaring at him for several seconds she managed to get the better of her temper, and to say, abruptly abandoning her dramatic style for a more business-like approach: “We’ll have a round tale, if you please! You haven’t been next or nigh Clara for close on a month, and when she wrote to you, as write she did, not a word did she get in reply from you, and her sick with apprehension, thinking you was ill, or had met with an accident! Not so much as a whisper did you see fit to vouchsafe, to warn her of the shocking sight which was to meet her poor, deluded eyes in this paper! She fell into hysterics on the instant, never dreaming but what you’d have told her, if you was meaning to get riveted, and acted gentlemanly by her!”

Considerably relieved to learn from this that Miss Alperton had apparently had no expectation of marrying Evelyn herself, Kit replied: “That piece of gossip, ma’am, was published without my knowledge.” He was about to add that it was also without foundation, but he bit the words back, too uncertain of Cressy’s intentions to venture to utter them. He said instead: “Clara must know that I’m a poor hand at letter-writing, but I should have written to reassure her had I not meant to answer her letter in person. Circumstances intervened which have obliged me to postpone my visit to her—”

“Yes, and everyone knows what they are!” interrupted Mrs Alperton. “What’s more, anyone that isn’t a knock-in-the-cradle knows better than to believe that bag of moonshine! Trying to shab off without paying down your dust, that’s what you’re doing, and you living as high as a coach-horse!”

“I don’t, but you may tell Clara—”

“Oh, yes, you do!” said Mrs Alperton, a steely light in her eyes. “No use thinking you can bamboozle me into believing your pockets ain’t well-lined, my lord! for that’s where you’ll be made to turn short about! Full of juice your father was, and I’ll be bound he cut up warm. And don’t think I wasn’t acquainted with him, because I was used to know all the swells, and very well pleased most of them were to get their legs under my mahogany, I can tell you!” She added, with dignity: “Before I retired, that was. My dinners were thought to be first-rate, which I promise you they were, with a French chef, and no expense spared, the Marquis never grudging a penny, but telling me always to buy the best, and keeping the cellar stocked with his own wines.”

Breaking into this reminiscent spate, Kit said: “You are labouring under a misapprehension, ma’am. I have not the remotest intention of shabbing off; nor shall I fail, when I contemplate matrimony, to inform Clara.”

“Why, that’s just what you have done!” she exclaimed indignantly. “Leaving her to read it in the newspaper, which only a heart of stone would have done!”

“I’ve told you already that what she read was mere gossip, and—”

“Yes, and I’ll thank you not to waste your breath telling me again!” said Mrs Alperton fiercely. “Nor to tell me that it’s mere gossip that you’ve got Miss Stavely staying here with you at this very moment!”

“Miss Stavely, ma’am, is my mother’s “goddaughter, and is staying here as her guest, not mine!”

“Fancy that, now! Not that I thought other, for it’s not to be supposed she’d have come if your mama hadn’t invited her. And mighty fortunate she must think herself, for she must be twenty, if she’s a day, and if Stavely means to come down handsomely it’s more than I’d bargain for! I never knew him to be beforehand with the world! But whether she’d think herself so fortunate if she was to know the way you’ve treated my Clara is another pair of shoes, my lord!”

Kit stiffened imperceptibly, realizing, from the gloating smile on Mrs Alperton’s lips, that this was not mere recrimination. Her object in coming to Ravenhurst was blackmail. This placed him in a position of extreme peril; for although a denunciation of his supposed perfidy would destroy the end she had in view he had seen enough of her to know that her hold over her temper was not strong; and he had little doubt that if he refused to comply with whatever demand she was about to make she would not hesitate to carry her threat into execution. Probably, since her voice became strident under the influence of emotion, Cressy would be by no means the only person at Ravenhurst to hear her disclosures. How to get rid of her without affording her the opportunity to kick up such a scene as he shuddered even to contemplate was a problem to which he could discover no certain answer. With the best will in the world to do it, he was powerless to silence her by presenting her with any such sum as she was likely to consider adequate: he could neither give her a draft on Evelyn’s account, nor upon his own. The will, moreover, was entirely lacking. He had no means of discovering the extent of Evelyn’s obligation; or whether Mrs Alperton was acting at her daughter’s instigation. He suspected that no money given into her hand would ever reach Clara; and he was pretty sure that she had played no part in whatever bargain Evelyn might have struck with Clara. Not only would it be very unlike Evelyn to enter into sordid negotiations with his Aspasia’s parent: it had been noticeable that throughout her discourse Mrs Alperton had refrained from making any such claim. Kit was determined to make no rash promises on his twin’s behalf.

Something of this must have shown itself in his face, for Mrs Alperton, who had been closely watching him, said, on a rising note: “And know it she shall, and so I warn you, my lord!”

“Tell me, Mrs Alperton,” said Kit, on a gentle note of mockery, “am I expected to believe that you are Clara’s mouthpiece? It seems strangely unlike her!”

It was a bow drawn at a venture, since, for anything he knew, Clara had inherited her mother’s temper, but he saw from Mrs Alperton’s face that he had hit the target. She looked angrily at him, but hardly hesitated before replying: “Oh, dear me, no! Well do you know that the sweet creature, loving you so truly as she does, would allow herself to be trampled to death rather than throw the least rub in the way of anything you wanted to do, even if it killed her, which I am afraid for my life it will do, for never have I seen her so low and disordered—scarcely able to raise her head from the pillow, and done-up with weeping! I shouldn’t wonder at it if she was to dwindle into a decline.”

Kit shook his head. “You shock me, ma’am. Do you know, I had no notion she suffered from such a profound sensibility?”

He felt himself to be on safe ground, for his imagination boggled at the vision of Evelyn developing the smallest tendre for so lachrymose a female. Apparently he had again hit the target, for Mrs Alperton informed him, in a voice of suppressed fury, that he little knew how much Clara sank under agitating reflections, or how hard it was for her to wear a smiling face whenever he chose to visit her.

“If that’s so, I should suppose her to be thankful to be rid of me,” he remarked, unable to repress an involuntary chuckle. He saw that Mrs Alperton was about to burst into further recriminations, and flung up a hand. “No, no, enough, ma’am! You’ve performed your errand! I am excessively sorry to hear of Clara’s distressing state, and I beg you will return to her bedside with all possible speed. Convey my deepest regrets to her that I have been the unwitting cause of her disorder, and assure her that as soon as it may be possible for me to do so I shall hasten to visit her.”

The issue seemed for a few moments to hang in the balance; but Mrs Alperton was made of resilient stuff. Abandoning all semblance of concern for her daughter’s broken heart, she said roughly: “Not till you come down with the derbies! I know your sort! A regular bounce, that’s what you are, but you won’t nurse my girl out of her due, not while I’m alive to protect her!”

“Mrs Alperton,” said Kit coldly, “you are making a mistake! I don’t run thin, but I am not a pigeon for your plucking! Clara will not find me ungenerous, but whatever may be the arrangement agreed upon it will be between her and me, and no one else.”

“Oh, will it indeed?” she ejaculated. Will it? If that’s your tone, my Lord Brass-face, I don’t leave this house until I’ve opened my budget to Miss Stavely! Try to have me put out if you dare! And don’t tell me she’s gone out, and won’t be back till nightfall, because if I believed you, which I don’t, I’d wait till midnight, and longer!”

At this point an entirely unexpected voice made itself heard. “What a fortunate circumstance that I haven’t gone out!” said Miss Stavely. “Did you wish to see me, ma’am?”

Since Kit had been standing with his back to the door, his person obscuring Mrs Alperton’s view of it, neither of them had seen it open a little way, and Cressy slip softly into the room. Mrs Alperton started, and let her parasol fall to the floor; but Kit spun round, the nonchalance wiped suddenly from his face, to be succeeded by a look of consternation.

Smiling brightly upon him, Cressy advanced into the room. Involuntarily he put out a hand to check her, but she ignored it, and went to sit down in a chair facing Mrs Alperton across the empty hearth. “Pray forgive me for interrupting you!” she said gracefully. “But you were speaking rather loudly, you know, ma’am, and I could not help but hear a little of what you were saying. I collect you have something you wish to tell me?”

“No!” said Kit.

Mrs Alperton, her high colour abating, glanced speculatively at him, before resuming her study of Cressy. There was an uncertain look in her eyes; and it was plainly to be seen that she was unable to decide whether Cressy’s entrance could be turned to pecuniary advantage, or whether it had effectually spiked her guns. She said slowly, and to gain time: “So you’re Stavely’s girl, are you? You don’t favour him much, by what I remember.”