A Terrible Temptation | Page 5

all consider Marsh's conduct
unclubable and a thing to be combined against. Wanted--an
Anti-dog-in-the-manger League. I'll introduce you to the Somerset."
"What! do you visit her?" asked Bassett, in some astonishment.
The old gentleman held up his hands in droll disclaimer, and chuckled
merrily "No, no; I enjoy from the shore the disasters of my youthful
friends--that sacred pleasure is left me. Do you see that elegant creature
with the little auburn beard and mustache, waiting sweetly for his
dinner. He launched the Somerset."
"Launched her?"
"Yes; but for him she might have wasted her time breaking hearts and
slapping faces in some country village. He it was set her devastating
society; and with his aid she shall devastate you.--Vandeleur, will you
join Bassett and me?"
Mr. Vandeleur, with ready grace, said he should be delighted, and they
dined together accordingly.
Mr. Vandeleur, six feet high, lank, but graceful as a panther, and the
pink of politeness, was, beneath his varnish, one of the wildest young
men in London--gambler, horse-racer, libertine, what not?--but in
society charming, and his manners singularly elegant and winning. He
never obtruded his vices in good company; in fact, you might dine with
him all your life and not detect him. The young serpent was torpid in
wine; but he came out, a bit at a time, in the sunshine of Cigar.
After a brisk conversation on current topics, the venerable chief told
him plainly they were both curious to know the history of Miss
Somerset, and he must tell it them.
"Oh, with pleasure," said the obliging youth. "Let us go into the
smoking-room."

"Let--me--see. I picked her up by the sea-side. She promised well at
first. We put her on my chestnut mare, and she showed lots of courage,
so she soon learned to ride; but she kicked, even down there."
"Kicked!--whom?"
"Kicked all round; I mean showed temper. And when she got to
London, and had ridden a few times in the park, and swallowed flattery,

there was no holding her. I stood her cheek for a good while, but at last
I told the servants they must not turn her out, but they could keep her
out. They sided with me for once. She had ridden over them, as well.
The first time she went out they bolted the doors, and handed her boxes
up the area steps."
"How did she take that?"
"Easier than we expected. She said, 'Lucky for you beggars that I'm a
lady, or I'd break every d--d window in the house.'"
This caused a laugh. It subsided. The historian resumed.
"Next day she cooled, and wrote a letter."
"To you?"
"No, to my groom. Would you like to see it? It is a curiosity."
He sent one of the club waiters for his servant, and his servant for his
desk, and produced the letter.
"There!" said Vandeleur. "She looks like a queen, and steps like an
empress, and this is how she writes:
"'DEAR JORGE--i have got the sak, an' praps your turn nex. dear jorge
he alwaies promise me the grey oss, which now an oss is life an death
to me. If you was to ast him to lend me the grey he wouldn't refuse you,
"'Yours respecfully,
"'RHODA SOMERSET.'"

When the letter and the handwriting, which, unfortunately, I cannot
reproduce, had been duly studied and approved, Vandeleur continued--
"Now, you know, she had her good points, after all. If any creature was
ill, she'd sit up all night and nurse them, and she used to go to church
on Sundays, and come back with the sting out of her; only then she
would preach to a fellow, and bore him. She is awfully fond of
preaching. Her dream is to jump on a first-rate hunter, and ride across
country, and preach to the villages. So, when George came grinning to
me with the letter, I told him to buy a new side-saddle for the gray, and
take her the lot, with my compliments. I had noticed a slight spavin in
his near foreleg. She rode him that very day in the park, all alone, and
made such a sensation that next day my gray was standing in Lord
Hailey's stables. But she rode Hailey, like my gray, with a long spur,
and he couldn't stand it. None of 'em could except Sir Charles Bassett,
and he doesn't play fair--never goes near her."

"And that gives him an unfair advantage over his fascinating
predecessors?" inquired the senior, slyly.
"Of course it does," said Vandeleur, stoutly. "You ask a girl to dine at
Richmond once a month, and keep out of her way all the rest of the
time, and give her lots of money--she will never quarrel with you."
"Profit by this information, young man,"