Half-an-hour after they had reached the house again, and just as Kit came downstairs, having changed his rough coat, his breeches, and his long gaiters for more formal attire, the Dowager Lady Stavely’s impressive chariot was at the door and Norton, aided by my lady’s footman, and with two of his own satellites in support, was tenderly handing her down from it. Kit arrived on the scene in time to hear the blistering reproof she addressed to her helpers: he gathered that her mood was unamiable, and was not surprised to be greeted with a pungent criticism of the state of the lane which led from the pike-road to the main gates. “However,” she conceded magnanimously, “you have a very tolerable place here—very tolerable indeed! I was never here before, so I’m glad to have seen it.” Her sharp eyes scanned the variegated facade. “H’m, yes! I do not call it splendid, but a very respectable seat. You should root up all those rhododendrons beside the avenue: nasty, gloomy things! I can’t abide ’em!”

“But think how beautiful they are when they are in bloom, ma’am!” said Cressy, who had just alighted from the carriage.

“All but the shabby-genteels are in London then, so much good do they do one!” said Lady Stavely sweepingly. She saw that her hostess was coming down the wide, shallow stone steps, and nodded to her. “How-de-do? I’ve been telling Denville he should root up those rhododendrons on the avenue: they make it too dark.”

“Yes, don’t they?” agreed Lady Denville. “Like descending into Hell; only then, of course, one comes out into open ground, which is such an agreeable surprise. Let me take you into the house, ma’am: the sun is quite scorching!”

The Dowager uttered a cackle of amusement. “Thinking of your complexion, are you? When you get to be my age you won’t care a rush for it. We used to lay crushed strawberries on our faces, to clear the sunburn. Slices of raw veal, too, against wrinkles. Not that I ever did so: messy, I call it! I dare say you use all manner of newfangled lotions, but they don’t do you any more good than the old-fashioned remedies did us.”

Lady Denville, who nightly applied distilled water of green pineapples to her exquisite countenance, and protected it during the day with Olympian Dew, replied without a blink that that was very true; and guided her guest towards the steps, offering the support of her arm. This was refused, the Dowager stating that she preferred the services of her footman. She also, stated, when it was suggested to her that she might like to be conducted immediately to her bedchamber, that she was an old woman, and in no state to drag herself up any more stairs until she had recovered her breath and what little energy remained to her.

“Then you shall come into the Blue saloon, which is delightfully cool, ma’am,” responded Lady Denville, with unabated good-humour. “I’ll tell them to make tea, and that will revive you.”

“Well, it won’t, for I shan’t drink it!” said the Dowager. “I’ll take a cup of tea after dinner, but I won’t maudle my inside with it at this time of day! What I could fancy—but it’s of no consequence if you have none!—is a glass of negus.”

“To be sure! how stupid of me!” exclaimed Lady Denville, directing a look of agonized inquiry at her butler.

“Immediately, my lady!” he said, rising magnificently to the occasion.

Cressy, still standing at the foot of the steps, raised ruefully smiling eyes to Kit’s face, and said softly: “She is tired, you know, and that always makes her knaggy! I am so sorry! But she will be better presently.”

An answering smile was in his eyes as he said: “I’ve a strong notion that somewhere—in one of the lumber-rooms, I fancy—there is a carrying-chair that was used by my grandfather, when he became crippled with the gout. Do you think—?”

“I do not!” she replied, on a choke of laughter. “The chances are that she would take it as an insult. It will be best to leave her to your mother’s management: depend upon it, she will charm her out of the mops! I think she would charm the most ill-natured person imaginable, don’t you? And Grandmama is not that—truly!”

“Certainly not! A most redoubtable old lady, who instantly won my respect! Now, what would you like to do? Shall I hand you over to Mrs Norton, to be escorted to your bedchamber, or will you take a turn on the terrace with me?”

“Thank you! I should like to do that. I caught glimpses on the avenue of what I think must be a lake, and longed to get a better view of it.”

“That may be had from the terrace,” he said, offering his arm. “I wish you might have seen it when the rhododendrons were in full bloom, however! Even your grandmama would own that their reflection in the water, on a sunny day, makes up for their gloominess now!”

“You wrong her, Denville! Nothing would prevail upon her to do so!” She turned her head, looking at him a little shyly, yet openly. “I wish you will tell me if this visit of ours is—is quite what you wanted?”

He replied immediately: “How could it have been otherwise?”

“Oh, easily! It was a stupid question to ask you, for you were obliged to give me a civil answer! The thing is that I have a lowering suspicion that Grandmama forced Lady Denville to invite us.”

“I believe it was she who hit upon the notion, but I can assure you that Mama was delighted with it. Can you doubt that I too am delighted?”

“Well, yes!” she replied unexpectedly. “The thought has teased me that although I told you that I had not perfectly made up my mind, I didn’t ask you to tell me whether you, perhaps, had misgivings too. When you left London, it occurred to me—I could not help wondering if—Oh, dear, my tongue is tying itself into knots! You see, I do understand how very awkward it must be for you, if you are wishing you had never offered for me! So don’t stand on points, but tell me if you feel we should not suit, and leave it to me to settle the matter—which, I promise you, I can do, without the least fuss or noise!”

He put his hand over hers, as it lay on his arm. “That is very kind and thoughtful of you!” he said gravely.

“Well, I know how difficult it is for gentlemen to cry off,” she explained. “It has always seemed to me to be monstrously unjust, too, for you may quite as easily make a mistake as we females are held to do so frequently!”

“Very true! That is to say, I haven’t yet had occasion to consider the matter, but I feel sure you are right.”

She smiled. “Are you ever at a non-plus? That was charmingly said. But let us have no flummery, if you please! And don’t be afraid that you will offend me! Tell me the truth!”

“The truth, Miss Stavely, without any flummery, is that the more I see of you the greater becomes my conviction that you are worthy of a better man than I am.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Is that a civil way of telling me that you would like to cry off?”

“No. It is a way of telling you that you are a darling,” he said, lifting her hand, and lightly kissing it.

The words were spoken before he could check them, and with a sincerity which brought a wave of colour into Cressy’s cheeks. He released her hand, thinking: I must take care; and: I have never known a girl like this one. Aloud, he said: “Are you afraid to walk on the grass in those thin sandals, or will you let me show you the rose-garden? It is quite at its best—and I have just caught sight of my young cousin! He will almost certainly join us if we remain here, and I wouldn’t for the world expose you to that trial until you have recovered from the fatigue of your journey!”

Her quick flush had faded; she laughed, falling into step beside him. “Yes, indeed! I dare say we must have come quite thirty miles! Is your cousin so very dreadful?”

“Yes: half flash and half foolish!” he said, handing her down the unevenly flagged steps on to the shaven turf. “We were used—my brother and I—to think him an irreclaimable jackstraw, and accorded him the roughest treatment on the rare occasions when we met him.”

“It seems to me that you still do so!”

“Not at all! I took him out to shoot rabbits this afternoon—my life in my hands! That’s quite enough for one day. Seriously, he’s a tiresome youth—what I should describe, if I were talking to one of my own sex, but not, of course, to you, as a shagbag.”

She said appreciatively: “No, of course not! And how would you describe him to me?”

“As a quiz—and bumptious at that! But I’m beginning to think that the fault doesn’t lie altogether at his own door. Are you acquainted with his father? my uncle Cosmo?” She shook her head. “Ah, then that is another treat in store for you! He is one of mother’s brothers, but she seems to suspect that he may be a changeling. Don’t be surprised if he asks you what you paid for your gown, and then tells you where you could have had it made up more cheaply!”

She was in a little ripple of amusement. “I won’t! You can’t think what a relief it is to me to know that you too have relations who put you to the blush! I’m covered with confusion every time I recall that shocking party in Mount Street, with poor dear Cousin Maria putting you out of countenance by saying in a voice to be heard all over London that you were very handsome; and that odious creature, Austin Lucton, trying to buttonhole you! My father was vexed to death when he heard that you did buy his horse! Is it a horrid commoner? Papa says that Austin can never judge a horse.”

“Oh, not a commoner!” he answered. “Just a trifle short of bone! You may see him for yourself: I had him brought down here, and have been hacking him.”

“Not thinking him fit to go in Leicestershire!” she said. “What can have possessed you to buy him? I fear your reputation will be sadly damaged!”

He chuckled softly. “No, will it? That’s famous!” He read a surprised question in her eyes, and added: “No, I don’t mean that! The truth is that I was obliged to purchase the animal—having kept your cousin waiting such an unconscionable time for my decision. Do you hunt, Cressy?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m afraid I don’t. I have been out once or twice with Papa, but not in the shires. You, I know, are what Papa calls one of the Tally-ho sort! I hope you won’t require me to try to emulate you, for I am very sure I couldn’t do so. I like to ride, but I am not an accomplished fencer! To own the truth, I find it very hard to throw my heart over a bullfinch, and I hate drop-fences!”

“Capital!” he said cheerfully. “For my part, I hate hard-riding females! Of late years, I have had little opportunity—” He caught himself up, and continued smoothly—“of observing the prowess of ladies on the hunting-field!” He stood aside, to allow her to pass through a rustic arch overhung with trailing crimson ramblers. “Here, ma’am, we enter into our celebrated rose-garden! Do you like it?”

“Oh, it is beautiful—exquisite!” she exclaimed, standing at gaze for a minute, before moving forward swiftly to inspect more closely a new specimen, just bursting into full flower.

“Tell Newbiggin so—he’s our head gardener—and youwill have made a slave for life! I should warn you, however, that my dear Mama is firmly convinced that she, and she alone, made this garden! And it is perfectly true that it was she who conceived the notion. She was immersed in plans when I left for Constantinople, but—”

“When you left for Constantinople?” she repeated, looking quickly up at him.

“To visit my brother,” he said glibly.

“Did you do that? How much I envy you!”

“Are you fond of foreign travel?”

“I have never done any—only in books!” she said. “It was used to be my greatest ambition—to see the world a little—but Papa dislikes foreigners, and I never could persuade him to go even as far as to Paris. You visited your brother in Vienna too, didn’t you? I wish you will tell me about it!”

There was no difficulty about this; and as they strolled companionably down the paths that separated the rose-beds Kit soon found that her reading had taught Cressy a great deal. She listened eagerly, interpolating an occasional question; and from time to time Kit paused to break off a particularly fine bloom to give to her. When they made their way back to the house she held quite a bouquet, and said, conscience-stricken: “If we should meet your gardener now he will become my enemy, not my slave! Tell me, Denville, did your father make the Grand Tour when he was young? Don’t you wish you had grown up then, before the war, when it was thought to be part of a young man’s education to travel abroad, learning to speak foreign languages, seeing how people live in other countries?”