第171章

'We looked very miserable, when we got wet through, walking about all day in the rain.'

'Was that necessary?'

'Quite necessary. We looked so mean and draggled that nobody would have voted for us, only that poor Mr Carbotttle looked meaner and more draggled.'

'The Duke says you made every so many speeches.'

'I should think I did. It is very easy to make speeches down at a place like that. Tregear spoke like a book.'

'He spoke well?'

'Awfully well. He told them that all the good things that had every been done in Parliament had been done by the Tories. He went back to Pitt's time, and had it all at his fingers' ends.'

'And quite true.'

'That's just what it was not. It was all a crammer. But it did well.'

'I am glad he is a member. Don't you think the Duke will come around a little now?'

When Tregear and the election had been sufficiently discussed, they came by degrees to Major Tifto and the two thunderbolts.

Silverbridge, when he perceived that nothing was to be said about Isabel Boncassen, or his own freedom in the matter of love-making, was not sorry to have a friend from whom he could find sympathy for himself in his own troubles. With some encouragement from Mabel the whole story was told. 'Was it not a great impertinence?' she asked.

'It was an awful bore. What could I say? I was not going to pronounce judgement against the poor devil, I daresay he was good enough for Mr Jawstock.'

'But I suppose he did cheat horribly.'

'I daresay he did. A great many of them do cheat. But what of that? I was not bound to give him a character, bad or good.'

'Certainly not.'

'He had not been my servant. It was such a letter. I'll show it to you when we get in!-asking whether Tifto was fit to be the depository of the intimacy of the Runnymeded hunt! And then Tif's letter;--I almost wept over that.'

'How could he have had the audacity to write at all?'

'He said that "him and me had been a good deal together".

Unfortunately that was true. Even now I am not quite sure that he lamed the horse himself.'

'Everybody thinks he did. Percival says there is no doubt about it.'

'Percival knows nothing about it. Three of the gang ran away, and he stood his ground. That's about all we do know.'

'What did you say to him?'

'I had to address him as Sir, and beg him not to write to me any more. Of course hey mean to get rid of him, and I couldn't do him any good. Poor Tifto! Upon the whole I think I hate Jawstock worse than Tifto.'

Lady Mabel was content with her afternoon's work. When they had been at Matching before the Polpenno election, there had apparently been no friendship between them;--at any rate no confidential friendship. Miss Boncassen had been there, and he had neither ears nor eyes for anyone else. But now something like the feeling of old days had been restored. She had not done much towards her great object,--but then she had known that nothing could be done till he should again be in good humour with her.

On the Sunday, the Monday, and the Tuesday they were again together. In some of these interviews Silverbridge described the Polpenno people, and told her how Miss Tregear had been reassured by his eloquence. He also read to her the Jawstock and Tifto correspondence, and was complimented by her as to his prudence and foresight. 'To tell the truth I consulted Mr Lupton,' he said, not liking to take credit for wisdom which had not been his own. Then they talked about Grex, and Killancodlem, about Gerald and the shooting, about Mary's love for Tregear, and about the work for the coming session. On all these subjects they were comfortable and confidential,--Miss Boncassen's name never having been as yet so much as mentioned.

But still the real work was before her. She had not hoped to bring him round to kneel once more at her feet by such gentle measures as these. She had not dared to dream that he could in this way be taught to forget the past autumn and all its charms. She knew well that there was something very difficult before her. But, if that difficult thing might be done at all, these were the preparations which must be made for the doing of it.

It was arranged that she should leave Matching on Saturday, the first day of the new year. Things had gone on in the manner described till the Thursday had come. The Duke had been impatient but had restrained himself. He had seen that they were much together and that they were apparently friends. He had told himself that there were two more days, and that before the end of those days everything might be pleasantly settled!

It had become a matter of course that Silverbridge and Mabel should walk together in the afternoon. He himself had felt that there was danger in this,--not danger that he should be untrue to Isabel, but that he should make others think that he was true to Mabel. But he excused himself on the plea that he and Mabel had been intimate friends,--were still intimate friends, and that she was going away in a day or two. Mary, who watched it all, was sure that misery was being prepared for someone. She was aware that by this time her father was anxious to welcome Mabel as his daughter-in-law. She strongly suspected that something had been said between her father and her brother on the subject. But then she had Isabel Boncassen's direct assurance that Silverbridge was engaged to her! Now when Isabel's back was turned, Silverbridge and Mabel were always together.

On the Thursday after lunch they were again together. It had become so much a habit that the walk repeated itself without an effort. It had been part of Mabel's scheme that it should be so.

During all this morning she had been thinking of her scheme. It was all hopeless. So much she had declared to herself. But forlorn hopes do sometimes end in splendid triumphs. That which she might gain was so much! And what could she lose? The sweet bloom of her maiden shame? That, she told herself, with bitterest inward tears, was already gone from her. Frank Tregear at any rate knew where her heart had been given. Frank Tregear knew that having lost her heart to one man she was anxious to marry another.