“And what if her aunt does not permit? I suppose you will abide by her decision?”

He grinned. “No, I shan’t. But I hope she may give her countenance to the marriage. If the worst comes to the worst I shall have a special licence with me, and we shall be married. But these runaway matches are not at all the thing, and I should prefer to have the marriage performed with the greatest possible degree of propriety, to save Phoebe the embarrassment of any scandal.”

“Quite right!” said Lady Bellingham approvingly. “I never thought you had so much sense, Adrian! It will answer very well. You will be able to put a notice in the Morning Post, saying that Phoebe was married from the house of her aunt, and although it may seem a trifle odd, it will be much better than to have it known that it was a horrid clandestine affair. Where does your aunt live, my dear?”

Miss Laxton, on whom these arbitrary plans for her future had acted like a strong tonic, sat up, and replied that her aunt was a widow, and lived at Welshpool, in Montgomery. She added that she knew her aunt would approve of her marriage to Adrian.

“That means the Holyhead road,” said his lordship. “I shall inform my mother that I am going into the country for a few days’ shooting, with some friends. I often do so: it will occasion not the least remark! Deb, I have no right to expect it of you but I do beg that you will go with Phoebe in the chaise, which I shall hire! I mean to ride beside you, of course.”

“What, am I to go with you to play propriety?” asked Miss Grantham, amused. “And pray what is to become of me at the journey’s end?”

“I shall bring you safely back to town,” promised his lordship. “I have thought it all out. Once the knot is tied, I shall leave Phoebe in her aunt’s care, and return to London to inform her parents and my own mother of the event. When that is done, and they are ready to receive Phoebe with the attention and the courtesy which is due to my wife, I shall fetch her to town again. After that, I dare say we shall go down to Mablethorpe.”

“I see that you have it all planned,” said Miss Grantham admiringly. “But I cannot perceive the least use in my going upon your bridal trip.”

But Miss Laxton at once caught her hand, and begged her not to desert her; and his lordship said, with a touch of austerity, that her presence was necessary to remove from the journey any flavour of elopement. Lady Bellingham, possibly reflecting that the excitement of the adventure might drive the thought of the mortgage out of her niece’s head, gave it as her opinion that Deborah ought certainly to go. Miss Grantham submitted, therefore, and promised to have herself and her proteg6e in readiness to set forward on the journey in an hour’s time. Lord Mablethorpe then left the house, to make his own arrangements. He would, he said, have a post-chaise at the door within the hour. The two ladies were to drive away in it, and he engaged himself to overtake them a few miles out of London.

In all the bustle of preparation, Miss Grantham had time only to scribble a hasty note to Mr Ravenscar, in which she informed him that she had received his very obliging communication, and would be grateful for an opportunity of meeting him upon her return from the country, further to discuss the matter. She added that she expected to be in London again within a few days and gave the letter to Silas, with instructions to deliver it by hand at once.

Miss Laxton spent the hour before her departure in an agony of dread, but the post-chaise-and-four was at the door before the arrival of an avenging parent could frustrate all Lord Mablethorpe’s schemes. Lady Bellingham bade farewell to travellers, announcing herself to be perfectly able to fob off Augusta Laxton, and a dozen like her; the two ladies climb into the chaise; the post-boys cracked their whips; the equipage lurched forward over the cobbles; and Miss Laxton was able to let her breath go at last.

Chapter 15

Lady Bellingham was not called upon to sustain a visit from Lady Laxton, but not long after the chaise had drive away from St James’s Square, Lord Laxton arrived at the house, and sent in his card.

Lady Bellingham received him in the Yellow Saloon, and was shrewd enough to perceive at the first glance that he was extremely ill-at-ease. The truth was that his lordship believed Sir James Filey to have been mistaken in thinking he had seen Phoebe at one of the windows in Lady Bellingham’s house and much resented having been sent to inquire into the matter. He was positive that his daughter was quite unacquainted with her ladyship, so that when Lady Bellingham received tentative questions with a look of the blankest bewilderment he was not at all surprised, but reflected that it was just Augusta to have driven him out on a fool’s errand. Lady Bellingham said that she had thought for some time that James was drinking too heavily. She supposed that he might have caught sight of her niece’s school-friend, Miss Smith, who had certainly been staying in the house, as his lordship might verify for himself, if he cared to question the servants. This was said with a sarcastic inflexion which embarrassed his lordship. He said that he had no wish to question the servants and was sure that a mistake had been made. Lady Bellingham then enjoyed herself very much by asking him a great many awkward questions about his daughter’s disappearance, so that he was glad to make his escape as soon as he could. He was not allowed to depart, however, without being asked how his wife did, and whether her luck at cards continued to hold good; and as he was well aware of the circumstances which had led up to Lady Laxton’s ceasing to receive cards of invitation to Lady Bellingham’s card-parties, he finally left the house in considerable disorder. Augusta, he decided, might do what she pleased, but for his part he was not going to be sent on any more such errands. His own belief was that his daughter had fled to her aunt in Wales, which was an exceedingly awkward business, since he supposed he would be obliged to go there to fetch the girl away. As this would entail meeting his redoubtable sister, and enduring the lightning of her extremely forked tongue, it was not a prospect to which he looked forward with any pleasure.

Lady Bellingham’s next visitor was Lucius Kennet, who strolled in to see her at about noon. He had come to tell her that he had an engagement that evening, and so would not be able to deal for her at the faro-table, as he usually did. When he heard of Deborah’s departure into Wales with Phoebe and Lord Mablethorpe, he was at first amused, and then as exasperated as a man of his easy-going temperament could be.

“So she’s going to marry the young sprig to the Laxton chit, is she?” he said. “I’m thinking that when Ravenscar gets to hear of this the game will be up, ma’am.”

“Oh, if I had not forgot to tell you!” exclaimed her ladyship. “Ravenscar has given the mortgage and the bills to her! I had not thought to find him so complaisant!”

He pursed up his lips. “That’s the way it is, is it? I’d a strong notion our friend was a deal more taken up with Deb’s charms than she guessed.”

Lady Bellingham sighed. “I own, I thought the same, and I daresay it is quite true. But it is useless to talk to Deb, Lucius! She has taken such a dislike to the man that nothing will overcome it!”

“It was in me mind, ma’am, that she was more than half in love with the fellow.”

“Oh no, nothing of the kind!” said her ladyship. “She can’t abide him. I can vouch for that! And if you are thinking that he might offer for her, I believe he is too proud. If anything of that nature has entered his head, you may depend upon it, it is not marriage he means!”

He agreed with this, and sat for a few moments, idly casting his dice on to the table at his elbow. After a frowning pause, he raised his eyes to her ladyship’s face, and said bluntly: “How do your accounts stand, ma’am?”

She shuddered. “Don’t ask me that! Of course, it is a relief to get that mortgage into my hands, but when I think of the twenty thousand pounds he offered to give Deb, I declare I could weep!”

“I was thinking much the same meself,” he said. “This is a bird that lays golden eggs, ma’am, and it would be a pity, so it would, to let it slip through our fingers before we have one of those same eggs.,

“I see no need for you to talk in that vulgar way, Lucius,” said her ladyship, with dignity. “But in the main I agree with what you say. Only Deb is so proud she will not take a penny from anyone, so you may as well stop thinking of that twenty thousand.”

He grinned. “And has your ladyship stopped thinking of it?” he inquired.

“No one,” said her ladyship severely, “can stop thinking of such a sum all in a trice, but I assure you it does not creep into my mind now above once or twice in a day.”

“If I could lay my hands on it, it’s not meself that would be forgetting an old friend,” he observed, watching the fall of his dice.

“I am sure you would not,” replied her ladyship, gratified by this kind thought, “and if I had such a sum I would not forget you. But Deb is determined not to touch a penny of Ravenscar’s money, so there is nothing for us to do but to put it out of our minds.”

“Faith, I’m disappointed in the darlin’!” said Mr Kennet. “I’m thinking I’ll be taking a hand in the game meself.”

“I do not see what you can do,” objected Lady Bellingham. “As soon as he knows that Mablethorpe is safely tied to Phoebe Laxton, there will no longer be the least reason why he should give us any money at all.”

“Well,” drawled Kennet, rising to his feet, and pocketing his dice, “Mablethorpe is not the only weapon to our hands, after all. I’ll be bidding you a very good day, ma’am.”