"No," sharply, "look at the Prince.Stare at that fat woman curtsying to him.Stare and then wink your eyes."Lady Alanby was talking about Mount Dunstan.
"Lord Dunholm has given us a lead.He is an old friend of mine, and he has been talking to me about it.It appears that he has been looking into things seriously.Modern as he is, he rather tilts at injustices, in a quiet way.He has satisfactorily convinced himself that Lord Mount Dunstan has been suffering for the sins of the fathers--which must be annoying.""Is Lord Dunholm quite sure of that?" put in Sir Nigel, with a suggestively civil air.
Old Lady Alanby gave him an unencouraging look.
"Quite," she said."He would be likely to be before he took any steps.""Ah," remarked Nigel."I knew Lord Tenham, you see."Lady Alanby's look was more unencouraging still.She quietly and openly put up her glass and stared.There were times when she had not the remotest objection to being rude to certain people.
"I am sorry to hear that," she observed."There never was any room for mistake about Tenham.He is not usually mentioned.""I do not think this man would be usually mentioned, if everything were known," said Nigel.
Then an appalling thing happened.Lady Alanby gazed at him a few seconds, and made no reply whatever.She dropped her glass, and turned again to talk to Betty.It was as if she had turned her back on him, and Sir Nigel, still wearing an amiable exterior, used internally some bad language.
"But I was a fool to speak of Tenham," he thought."A great fool."A little later Miss Vanderpoel made her curtsy to the exalted guest, and was commented upon again by those who looked on.It was not at all unnatural that one should find ones eyes following a girl who, representing a sort of royal power, should have the good fortune of possessing such looks and bearing.
Remembering his child bete noir of the long legs and square, audacious little face, Nigel Anstruthers found himself restraining a slight grin as he looked on at her dancing.
Partners flocked about her like bees, and Lady Alanby of Dole, and other very grand old or middle-aged ladies all found the evening more interesting because they could watch her.
"She is full of spirit," said Lady Alanby, "and she enjoys herself as a girl should.It is a pleasure to look at her.Ilike a girl who gets a magnificent colour and stars in her eyes when she dances.It looks healthy and young."It was Tommy Miss Vanderpoel was dancing with when her ladyship said this.Tommy was her grandson and a young man of greater rank than fortune.He was a nice, frank, heavy youth, who loved a simple county life spent in tramping about with guns, and in friendly hobnobbing with the neighbours, and eating great afternoon teas with people whose jokes were easy to understand, and who were ready to laugh if you tried a joke yourself.He liked girls, and especially he liked Jane Lithcom, but that was a weakness his grandmother did not at all encourage, and, as he danced with Betty Vanderpoel, he looked over her shoulder more than once at a pair of big, unhappy blue eyes, whose owner sat against the wall.
Betty Vanderpoel herself was not thinking of Tommy.In fact, during this brilliant evening she faced still further developments of her own strange case.Certain new things were happening to her.When she had entered the ballroom she had known at once who the man was who stood before the royal guest--she had known before he bowed low and withdrew.And her recognition had brought with it a shock of joy.For a few moments her throat felt hot and pulsing.It was true--the things which concerned him concerned her.All that happened to him suddenly became her affair, as if in some way they were of the same blood.Nigel's slighting of him had infuriated her; that Lord Dunholm had offered him friendship and hospitality was a thing which seemed done to herself, and filled her with gratitude and affection; that he should be at this place, on this special occasion, swept away dark things from his path.It was as if it were stated without words that a conservative man of the world, who knew things as they were, having means of reaching truths, vouched for him and placed his dignity and firmness at his side.
And there was the gladness at the sight of him.It was an overpoweringly strong thing.She had never known anything like it.She had not seen him since Nigel's return, and here he was, and she knew that her life quickened in her because they were together in the same room.He had come to them and said a few courteous words, but he had soon gone away.At first she wondered if it was because of Nigel, who at the time was making himself rather ostentatiously amiable to her.Afterwards she saw him dancing, talking, being presented to people, being, with a tactful easiness, taken care of by his host and hostess, and Lord Westholt.She was struck by the graceful magic with which this tactful ease surrounded him without any obviousness.The Dunholms had given a lead, as Lady Alanby had said, and the rest were following it and ignoring intervals with reposeful readiness.It was wonderfully well done.
Apparently there had been no past at all.All began with this large young man, who, despite his Viking type, really looked particularly well in evening dress.Lady Alanby held him by her chair for some time, openly enjoying her talk with him, and calling up Tommy, that they might make friends.
After a while, Betty said to herself, he would come and ask for a dance.But he did not come, and she danced with one man after another.Westholt came to her several times and had more dances than one.Why did the other not come? Several times they whirled past each other, and when it occurred they looked--both feeling it an accident--into each other's eyes.