The Wicked Marquis Read online

  CHAPTER XXII

  A queer atmosphere of depression seemed about this time to haveaffected the two inhabitants of Number 94 Grosvenor Square. TheMarquis had suddenly become aware of an aimlessness in life which noteven his new financial hopes enabled him to combat. The night of hisweekly dinner at Trewly's he spent in the entertainment of threeancient whist companions, and it was not until they had gone and he wasleft alone in the silent house that he realised how empty andprofitless the evening had been. Day by day, after lunch, he sent outthe same message to his chauffeur--five o'clock for the club instead ofthree o'clock for Battersea, and on each occasion the words seemed toleave his lips with more reluctance. He walked each morning in thePark, as carefully dressed and as upright as ever, but one or two ofhis acquaintances noticed a certain difference. There was an increasedpallor, a listlessness of gait, which seemed to bespeak an absent or apreoccupied mind. He even welcomed the coming, one morning just as hewas starting for his promenade, of Mr. Wadham, Junior. Here at leastwas diversion.

  Mr. Wadham, Junior, had been rehearsing his interview and hisprospective deportment towards the Marquis on the way up, and hestarted the enterprise to his own entire satisfaction. He entered thelibrary with an exceedingly serious air, and he took great pains to besure that the door was closed after the retreating butler before he didmore than respond to his distinguished client's greeting.

  "Anything fresh, Wadham?" the latter enquired.

  "I have ventured to see your lordship once more," Mr. Wadham began,"with reference to the scrip which we deposited at the bank to meetcertain liabilities on your behalf."

  "Well, what about it?" the Marquis asked good-humouredly. "You lawyersknow nothing of the Stock Exchange."

  Mr. Wadham assumed an expression of great gravity.

  "Would your lordship," he begged, "for the satisfaction of my firm, themembers of which I think you will admit have always been devoted toyour lordship's interests, ring up the stockbroking firmof--say--Messrs. Youngs, Fielden and Company, or any other you like,with reference to the value of those shares?"

  "I am, unfortunately," the Marquis replied, "not in a position to doso. The shares were sold me by a personal friend. I am content tobelieve that if they had not been of their face value, the transactionwould not have been suggested to me."

  "That," Mr. Wadham declared seriously, "is not business."

  "It happens to be the only way in which I can look upon the matter,"was the cool reply.

  "To proceed a little further," the lawyer continued, "I am here toenquire, solely in your own interests and as a matter of business,whether you have made any definite agreement to pay for these shares?I am under the impression that your lordship mentioned a note of hand."

  "I have signed," the Marquis acknowledged, "a bill, I believe thedocument was called, for forty thousand pounds, due in about twomonths' time."

  "Has your lordship any idea as to how this liability is to be met?"

  "None at all. It is possible that the shares will have advanced invalue sufficiently to justify my selling them. If not, I take it thatthe bank will advance the sum against the scrip."

  Mr. Wadham, Junior, could scarcely contain himself.

  "Does your lordship know," he exclaimed, "that the bank hesitated aboutadvancing a sum of less than a thousand pounds upon the security ofthose shares?"

  The Marquis yawned.

  "They will probably have changed their minds in two months' time," heremarked.

  "But if they have not?" Mr. Wadham persisted.

  "It is the unfortunate proclivity of you who are immersed in the narrowways of legal procedure," his client observed, "to look only upon theworst side of a matter. Personally, I am an optimist. I rather expectto make a fortune on those shares."

  "It is the belief of my firm, on the contrary," Mr. Wadham confessedgloomily, "that they will end in a petition in bankruptcy beingpresented against your lordship."

  The Marquis shook out his handkerchief, wiped his lips and lit acigarette.

  "Yours appears to be rather a dismal errand, Mr. Wadham," he saidcoldly. "Is there any reason why I should detain you further?"

  "None whatever, so long as I have made it quite clear that there is noprospect of raising a single half-penny in excess of the mortgagesalready completed. The matter of the forty thousand pounds draft is,of course, entirely in your lordship's hands. I thought it my duty toinform you as to the value of the shares, in case you were able topersuade the gentleman who sold them to you to cancel the transaction."

  "You mean well, Wadham, no doubt," the Marquis declared, a littlepatronisingly, "but, as I said before, your turn of mind is too legal.My respects to your father. You will forgive my ringing, will you not?Lady Letitia is waiting for me to walk with her."

  Mr. Wadham departed, saying blasphemous things all the way intoPiccadilly, and the Marquis walked with Lady Letitia in the Park. As arule their conversation, although mostly of personal matters, wasconducted in light-hearted fashion enough by Letitia, and responded towith a certain dry though stately humour by her father. This morning,however, a silence which amounted almost to constraint reigned betweenthem. The Marquis, realising this, finally dragged his thoughts withdifficulty away from his own affairs.

  "I had intended to speak to you, Letitia," he began, "concerning theannouncement of your marriage. Some festivities must naturally follow,and a meeting between myself and the Duke."

  "Whom you hate like poison, don't you, dad!" Letitia said, with alittle grimace. "Well, so do I, for the matter of that."

  "One's personal feelings are scarcely of account in such a case," theMarquis averred; "that is to say, any personal feelings with theexception of yours and Grantham's. The match is suitable in every way,and at a time when every young man of account is being chased by a newrace of ineligible young women, it must be a comfort to his family tocontemplate an alliance like this."

  Letitia shrugged her shoulders.

  "With regard to the actual announcement, dad," she said, "we are goingto keep it to ourselves for a few weeks longer, or at any rate until weare safely settled in the country. It's such a bore to have every oneyou have ever spoken to in your life come rushing round to wish youhappiness and that sort of thing. Charlie rather agrees with me."

  "The matter, naturally, is in your hands," the Marquis replied, with aslight air of relief.

  "Of course, I am seeing rather more of Charlie," Letitia went on, "butpeople won't take any notice of that. There have been rumours of ourengagement at least half a dozen times already. Aren't you gettingjust a little sick, dad, of this everlasting walk and these everlastingpeople we keep on bowing to and wish we didn't know?"

  "I hadn't thought of it exactly in that way," her father confessed,"and yet perhaps London is a little wearisome this season."

  "I think," Letitia sighed, "that I never felt so keen about leavingtown and getting into the country. I suppose you wouldn't care to godown to Mandeleys a week earlier, would you?" she asked tentatively.

  The Marquis looked upwards towards the tops of the trees. He thoughtof that particular spot on the hall table where notes were left forhim, of the old-fashioned silver salver laid by his side on thebreakfast table, upon which his letters were placed. He thought of thequeer new feeling with which, day by day, he glanced them through,opening none, searching always, covering his disappointment by means ofsome ingenious remark; and of the days when he returned from such awalk as this, or from the club, his eyes glued upon the sideboard evenwhile the butler was relieving him of his coat and gloves. Thismorning all the accumulated sickness, all the little throbs ofdisappointment, seemed to be lumped into one gigantic and intolerabledepression, so that his knees even trembled a little while he walked,and his feet felt as though they were shod with lead. He rememberedhis sleepless nights. He thought of that dull ache which came to himsometimes in the still hours, when he lay and fancied that he couldhear her voice, her cheerful laugh, the tender touch of her fi
ngers.He felt a sudden, overmastering desire to be free, at any rate, fromthat minute by minute agony. At Mandeleys there would be only thepost. Or perhaps, if he made up his mind to leave town earlier than hehad expected, he would not be breaking his word to himself if he sentjust a line to tell her of his changed plans. The country, by allmeans!

  "So far as I am concerned, Letitia," he said, "I think that I havenever before felt so strongly the desire to leave London. I supposethat, if we were content to take things quietly, we could collect a fewservants and be comfortable there?"

  "I am sure of it, dad!" she exclaimed eagerly. "You don't need tobother. I could arrange it all," she went on, passing her arm throughhis. "Four or five women will be all that we need, and Mrs. Harris cancollect those in the village. Then we need only take Gossett and Smithfrom here, and of course cook. The others can go on to board wages."

  The Marquis smiled indulgently.

  "You must not disperse the establishment too completely, my dear," hesaid. "I have great hopes that a certain business venture which I havemade will place us in a very different financial position before verylong."

  She looked a little dubious.

  "Was that what Mr. Wadham was worrying about this morning?" she asked.

  "Mr. Wadham, Junior, is a most ignorant young man," her fatherproclaimed stiffly. "The venture, such as it is, is one which I havemade entirely on my own responsibility."

  A sudden thought struck her. Her arm tightened upon her father's.

  "Has it anything to do with Mr. Thain?"

  "It was Mr. Thain who placed the matter before me," he assented.

  "And Mr. Wadham doesn't approve?"

  "You really are a most intelligent young person," her father declared,smiling. "Mr. Wadham's disapproval, however, does not disturb me."

  Letitia was conscious of a curious uneasiness.

  "Are you quite sure that Mr. Thain is an honest man, father?" she asked.

  The Marquis's eyebrows were slightly elevated.

  "My dear!" he said reprovingly. "Mr. Thain's position as a financieris, I believe, beyond all question. Your aunt, who, you will remember,first brought him to us, spoke of his reputation in the States as beingentirely unexceptionable."

  "After all, aunt only met him on the steamer," Letitia observed.

  "Consider further," the Marquis continued, "that he has taken Broomleysand will therefore be a neighbour of ours for some time. Do you thinkthat he would have done this with the knowledge in his mind he hadinvolved me in a transaction which was destined to have an unfortunateconclusion?"

  Letitia was silent. Her fine forehead was clouded by a littleperplexed frown. The problem of David Thain was not so easily solved.Then the Duchess called to them from her car and beckoned Letitia toher side.

  "I have heard rumours, Letitia," she whispered.

  Letitia nodded.

  "I was coming round to see you, aunt," she replied. "We are not goingto announce it until a little later on."

  The Duchess smiled her approbation.

  "I am delighted," she declared. "You are so difficult, Letitia, andthere are so many girls about just now, trying to get hold of our youngmen. Some one was telling me only last night of an American girl--orwas she South American; I don't remember--with millions and millions,who almost followed Charlie about. Of course, that sort of thing isbeing done, but it hasn't happened in our family yet. Dear people,both of you! When are you going to Mandeleys?"

  "We have just decided," the Marquis told her, "to shorten our stay inLondon. Letitia's engagements are capable of curtailment, and my ownare of no account. We are thinking of going at once."

  "And your neighbour," the Duchess enquired; "when is he going intoresidence?"

  "I have not heard."

  "I am expecting him to come to Scotland later on," she observed.

  The Marquis was gently surprised.

  "Won't he be just a little--"

  "Not at all," the Duchess interrupted. "He shoots and fishes, and doeseverything other men do. I am not quite sure," she went on, "that youthoroughly appreciate Mr. Thain."

  "My dear Caroline, you are entirely mistaken," the Marquis assured her."What Letitia's sentiments with regard to him may be, I do not know,but so far as I am concerned, I consider him a most desirableacquisition to my acquaintances."

  "If only I had your manner!" she said earnestly. "Poor Mr. Thain!"

  With a little nod she drove off. The Marquis and Letitia continuedtheir promenade.

  "Why 'Poor Mr. Thain'?" the former mused. "Exactly what did Carolinemean, I wonder?"

  "I think," Letitia replied, "that she was emphasising the distinctionbetween your acceptance of Mr. Thain and hers."

  Her father remained puzzled.

  "Mr. Thain has been a guest at my house," he said, "and we shall treathim as a neighbour when we meet at Mandeleys."

  "Those things are indications of a friendly feeling," Letitia observed,"but you yourself know where you have placed the barriers. Now AuntCaroline doesn't mean to have any barriers. If Mr. Thain can beawakened to his great opportunities, it is perfectly clear that shemeans to enter upon a flirtation with him."

  The Marquis was a little shocked.

  "You are somewhat blunt, my dear," he said. "So far as your AuntCaroline is concerned, too, I fear that she has in a measure lost thatfine edge--perhaps I should say that very delicate perception of thedifferences which undoubtedly do exist. I am pointing this out to you,Letitia," he continued, as they left the Park, "but it occurs to methat my doing so is unnecessary. I have noticed that since yourentrance into Society, some four or five years ago, you have identifiedyourself entirely with my views. Nothing could have been morediscriminating than your treatment of the various excellent people withwhom you have been brought into contact."

  Letitia did not speak for a moment. Then she turned to her father witha little sigh.

  "An inherited weakness, I suppose," she murmured. "I sometimes ratherenvy other people their standpoint."

  The Marquis made no reply. They were nearing Number 94, and he wasconscious of that slight, nervous expectancy which required always afirm hand. The door was opened before they could ring. The young manwho served under Gossett was already relieving him of his hat andgloves. With a perfectly leisurely step, the Marquis advanced towardsthe hall table. He glanced at the superscription of two or threenotes, dropped his eyeglass, and turned away towards hisstudy--empty-handed.

  "Several notes for you, Letitia," he said, without looking around.