The Quiet Gentleman

“Oh, she is a very good sort of a girl, after all! But my tastes do not run in that direction. She is a guest at Stanyon merely while her parents are visiting in the north. They live at Gilbourne: in fact, they are your tenants. Her ladyship has a kindness for Drusilla, which is not wonderful, for she is always very obliging, and her lack of countenance, as you have it, makes it in the highest degree unlikely that she will ever be a danger to Lady St. Erth’s schemes for Martin.” He rose from his chair, and added, glancing down at the Earl: “We can offer you better entertainment, I hope! There is the hunting, remember, and your coverts should afford you excellent sport.”

“My dear Theo, I may have been abroad for a few years, but I was reared in England, you know!” expostulated Gervase. “If you will tell me what I am to hunt, or shoot, at this moment — !”

Theo laughed. “Wood-pigeons!”

“Yes, and rabbits. I thank you!”

“Well, you will go to London for the Season, I daresay.”

“You may say so with the fullest confidence.”

“I see it is useless for me to waste my eloquence upon you. Only remain at Stanyon for long enough to understand in what case you stand, and I must be satisfied! Tomorrow, I give you warning, I shall make you attend to business. I won’t tease you any more tonight, however. Sleep sound!”

“I hope I may, but I fear my surroundings may give me a nightmare. Where are you quartered, Theo?”

“Oh, in the Tower! It has come to be considered my particular domain. My bedchamber is above the muniment room, you know.”

“A day’s march to reach you! It must be devilish uncomfortable!”

“On the contrary, it suits me very well. I am able to fancy myself in a house of my own, and can enter the Tower by the door into the Chapel Court, if I choose, and so escape being commanded to furnish my aunt with the details of where I have been, or where I am going!”

“Good God! Will it be my fate to endure such examinations?”

“My aunt,” said Theo, with a lurking twinkle, “likes to know all that one does, and why one does it.”

“You terrify me! I shall certainly not remain at Stanyon above a week!”

But his cousin only smiled, and shook his head, and left him to ring for his valet.

When the man came, he brought with him a can of hot water, and a warming-pan. The Earl, staring at this, said: “Now, what in thunder are you about?”

“It appears, my lord,” responded Turvey, in a voice carefully devoid of expression, “that extremely early hours are kept in this house — or, as I apprehend I should say, Castle. The servants have already gone to bed, and your lordship would hardly desire to get between cold sheets.”

“Thank you, my constitution is really not so sickly as you must think it! Next you will bring me laudanum, as a composer! Set the thing down in the hearth, and don’t be so foolish again, if you please! Have they housed you comfortably?”

“I make no complaint, my lord. I collect that the Castle is of considerable antiquity.”

“Yes, parts of it date back to the fourteenth century,” said the Earl, stripping off his shirt. “It was moated once, but the lake is now all that remains of the moat.”

“That, my lord,” said Turvey, relieving him of his shirt, “would no doubt account for the prevailing atmosphere of damp.”

“Very likely!” retorted Gervase. “I infer that Stanyon does not meet with your approval!”

“I am sure, a most interesting pile, my lord. Possibly one becomes inured to the inconvenience of being obliged to pass through three galleries and seven doors on one’s way to your lordship’s room.”

“Oh!” said the Earl, a trifle disconcerted. “It would certainly be better that you should be quartered rather nearer to me.”

“I was alluding, my lord, to the position of the Servants’ Hall. To reach your lordship’s room from my own, it will be necessary for me to descend two separate stairways, to pass down three corridors; through a door permitting access to one of the galleries with which the Castle appears to be — if I may say so! — somewhat profusely provided; and, by way of an antechamber, or vestibule, reach the court round which this portion of the Castle was erected.” He waited for these measured words to sink into his master’s brain, and then added, in soothing accents: “Your lordship need have no fear, however, that I shall fail to bring your shaving-water in the morning. I have desired one of the under-footman — a very obliging lad — to act as my guide until I am rather more conversant with my surroundings.” He paused. “Or, perhaps I should say, until your lordship decides to return to London!”

Chapter 3