"Ladies first," commented Amabel, pertly.There was no objection to being supported in one's suspicion that, after all, one was a "looker.""There may be a sort of explanation," Honora put the idea forward somewhat thoughtfully."Captain Palliser insists that he is much shrewder than he seems.Perhaps he is cautious, and is looking us all over before he commits himself.""He is a Temple Barholm, after all," said Gwynedd, with boldness.
"He's rather good looking.He has the nicest white teeth and the most cheering grin I ever saw, and he's as 'rich as grease is,' as I heard a housemaid say one day.I'm getting quite resigned to his voice, or it is improving, I don't know which.If he only knew the mere A B C of ordinary people like ourselves, and he committed himself to me, Iwouldn't lay my hand on my heart and say that one might not think him over.""I told you she was tremendously taken with him," said her sister.
"It's come to this."
"But," said Lady Gwynedd, "he is not going to commit himself to any of us, incredible as it may seem.The one person he stares at sometimes is Joan Fayre, and he only looks at her as if he were curious and wouldn't object to finding out why she treats him so outrageously.He isn't annoyed; he's only curious.""He's been adored by salesladies in New York," said Honora, "and he can't understand it.""He's been liked," Amabel Grantham summed him up."He's a likable thing.He's even rather a dear.I've begun to like him myself.""I hear you are learning to play croquet," the Duke of Stone remarked to him a day or so later."How do you like it?""Lady Gwynedd Talchester is teaching me," Tembarom answered."I'd learn to iron shirt-waists if she would give me lessons.She's one of the two that have dimples," he added, reflection in his tone."I guess that'll count.Shouldn't you think it would?""Miss Hutchinson?" queried the duke.
Tembarom nodded.
"Yes, it's always her," he answered without a ray of humor."I just want to stack 'em up.""You are doing it," the duke replied with a slightly twisted mouth.
There were, in fact, moments when he might have fallen into fits of laughter while Tembarom was seriousness itself."I must, however, call your attention to the fact that there is sometimes in your manner a hint of a businesslike pursuit of a fixed object which you must beware of.The Lady Gwynedds might not enjoy the situation if they began to suspect.If they decided to flout you,--'to throw you down,' I ought to say--where would little Miss Hutchinson be?"Tembarom looked startled and disturbed.
"Say," he exclaimed, "do I ever look that way? I must do better than that.Anyhow, it ain't all put on.I'm doing my stunt, of course, but I like them.They're mighty nice to me when you consider what they're up against.And those two with the dimples,--Lady Gwynned and Lady Honora, are just peaches.Any fellow might"--he stopped and looked serious again--"That's why they'd count," he added.
They were having one of their odd long talks under a particularly splendid copper beech which provided the sheltered out-of-door corner his grace liked best.When they took their seats together in this retreat, it was mysteriously understood that they were settling themselves down to enjoyment of their own, and must not be disturbed.
"When I am comfortable and entertained," Moffat, the house steward, had quoted his master as saying, "you may mention it if the castle is in flames; but do not annoy me with excitement and flurry.Ring the bell in the courtyard, and call up the servants to pass buckets; but until the lawn catches fire, I must insist on being left alone.""What dear papa talks to him about, and what he talks about to dear papa," Lady Celia had more than once murmured in her gently remote, high-nosed way, "I cannot possibly imagine.Sometimes when I have passed them on my way to the croquet lawn I have really seen them both look as absorbed as people in a play.Of course it is very good for papa.It has had quite a marked effect on his digestion.But isn't it odd!""I wish," Lady Edith remarked almost wistfully, "that I could get on better with him myself conversationally.But I don't know what to talk about, and it makes me nervous."Their father, on the contrary, found in him unique resources, and this afternoon it occurred to him that he had never so far heard him express himself freely on the subject of Palliser.If led to do so, he would probably reveal that he had views of Captain Palliser of which he might not have been suspected, and the manner in which they would unfold themselves would more than probably be illuminating.The duke was, in fact, serenely sure that he required neither warning nor advice, and he had no intention of offering either.He wanted to hear the views.
"Do you know," he said as he stirred his tea, "I've been thinking about Palliser, and it has occurred to me more than once that I should like to hear just how he strikes you?""What I got on to first was how I struck him," answered Tembarom, with a reasonable air."That was dead easy."There was no hint of any vaunt of superior shrewdness.His was merely the level-toned manner of an observer of facts in detail.
"He has given you an opportunity of seeing a good deal of him," the duke added."What do you gather from him-- unless he has made up his mind that you shall not gather anything at all?""A fellow like that couldn't fix it that way, however much he wanted to," Tembarom answered again reasonably."Just his trying to do it would give him away.""You mean you have gathered things?"
"Oh, I've gathered enough, though I didn't go after it.It hung on the bushes.Anyhow, it seemed to me that way.I guess you run up against that kind everywhere.There's stacks of them in New York--different shapes and sizes.""If you met a man of his particular shape and size in New York, how would you describe him?" the duke asked.