The Nonesuch

She stayed to see the riding-party off before joining Miss Colebatch and Julian in the taproom. She found them already discussing a pot of tea, Elizabeth reclining on the settle and looking rather more cheerful, and Lindeth not seeming to be in need of reassurance. Miss Trent warmly, if silently, applauded the good manners which prompted him to appear very well satisfied with his situation; and at once seconded his efforts to divert Elizabeth. She, poor girl, was still far from being her usually lively self, for, in addition to an aching head, she was suffering the mortification of knowing that she had ruined what should have been a day of pleasure, and had made her dear friend cry. She could not help laughing when Julian, amongst other schemes for ensuring her privacy, announced his intention of borrowing an apron from the landlady, and carrying tankards out to any thirsty patrons of the Bird in Hand; but a moment later she was wondering whether Tiffany would ever forgive her, and saying, for perhaps the fiftieth time, that she could not conceive what had come over her, or how she could have been so stupid.

“Well, for my part,” said Miss Trent, “I am glad that something did come over you! I was wishing I had never expressed a desire to visit the Dripping Well, and was never more thankful than when it was decided to abandon the scheme.”

“You are always so kind! But Tiffany was so set on it!”

“My dear Miss Colebatch, if Tiffany suffers no worse disappointments than today’s she may count herself fortunate!” replied Ancilla lightly. “I wish you won’t tease yourself merely because she flew into one of her tantrums! You must know what a spoilt child she is!”

“It is that, isn’t it?” Julian said eagerly. “Just—just childishness! She is so lovely, and—and engaging that it’s no wonder she should be a trifle spoilt.”

“No, indeed!” she said, adding with what she felt to be odious duplicity: “You must not blame Mrs Underhill, however. I daresay she should have been stricter, but her own nature is so gentle and yielding that she is no match for Tiffany. And she does so much dread her passions! I must own I do too! No one can be more enchanting than Tiffany, and no one that I ever met can more easily throw an entire household into discomfort! I can’t tell you, sir, how very much obliged I am to your cousin for coming to our rescue as he did!”

He responded only with a quick, constrained smile, and she said no more, hoping that she had given him enough to digest for the present, and had perhaps made him wonder whether Sir Waldo’s conduct had not sprung rather from a laudable impulse to nip a painful scene in the bud than from any desire to cut out his young cousin.

Chapter 8

“I don’t deny that I was thankful to be spared a fit of strong hysterics,” Miss Trent told the Nonesuch, when, at the end of that memorable day, Miss Colebatch had been safely restored to her parents, “and I can’t doubt that you don’t deny, sir, that your conduct was utterly unscrupulous!”

“Yes, I shall,” he replied coolly. “I did nothing to promote the scene; I refrained from adding as much as one twig to the flames; and when I did intervene it was from motives of chivalry.”

“From what?”she gasped.

“Motives of chivalry,” he repeated, meeting her astonished gaze with a grave countenance, but with such a twinkle in his eyes that she was hard put to it not to laugh. “A look of such piteous entreaty was cast at me—”

“No!”protested Miss Trent. “Not piteous! I didn’t!”

“Piteous!” said the Nonesuch remorselessly. “Your eyes, ma’am—as well you know!!—cried Help me! What could I do but respond to the appeal?”

“Next you will say that it went much against the pluck with you!” said Miss Trent, justly incensed.

“No service I could render you, ma’am, would go against the pluck!”

Her colour mounted, but she said: “I should have guessed you would have a glib answer ready!”

“You might also have guessed that I meant it.”

She found herself suddenly a little breathless; and wished, for the first time, that she was more experienced in the art of dalliance. There was a note of sincerity in his voice; but caution warned her not to allow herself to be taken in by a man of the world whom she judged to be expert in flirtation. She managed to laugh, although rather shakily, and to say: “Very prettily said. Sir Waldo! I must give you credit too for having brought Tiffany back to us all compliance and good humour. A triumph indeed!”

“Fencing with me, Miss Trent?”

She was silent for a moment or two, and when she did speak it was with a good deal of constraint. “I think you forget my situation, sir.”

“On the contrary: your situation chafes me too much to be forgotten.”

She looked at him in astonishment. “Chafes you!”

“Beyond endurance! You stare! Does it seem so strange to you that I should very much dislike seeing you in such a position?”