My Lady Caprice | Page 4

I obeyed
the summons of her parasol and crossed over to the brougham.
"So she's gone away?" was her greeting as I raised my hat - "Lisbeth,"
she nodded, "I happened to hear something about her, you know."
It is strange, perhaps, but the Duchess generally does "happen to hear"
something about everything. "And you actually allowed yourself to be
bullied into making that promise - Dick! Dick! I'm ashamed of you."
"How was I to help myself?" I began. "You see - "
"Poor boy !" said the Duchess, patting me affectionately with the
handle of her parasol, "it wasn't to be expected, of course. You see, I
know her - many, many years ago I was at school with Agatha
Warburton."
"But she probably didn't use lorgnettes then, and - "
"Her nose was just as sharp though - 'peaky' I used to call it," nodded
the Duchess. "And she has actually sent Lisbeth away - dear child - and
to such a horrid, quiet little place, too, where she'll have nobody to talk
to but that young Selwyn.
"I beg pardon, Duchess, but - "
"Horace Selwyn, of Selwyn Park - cousin to Lord Selwyn, of
Brankesmere. Agatha has been scheming for it a long time, under the
rose, you know. Of course, it would be a good match, in a way -
wealthy, and all that - but I must say he bores me horribly - so very
serious and precise!"
"Really !"I exclaimed, "do you mean to say - "
"I expect she will have them married before they know it - Agatha's
dreadfully determined. Her character lies in her nose and chin."
"But Lisbeth is not a child - she has a will of her own, and - "
"True," nodded the Duchess, "but is it a match for Agatha's chin? And
then, too, it is rather more than possible that you are become the object

of her bitterest scorn by now.
"But, my dear Duchess - "
"Oh, Agatha is a born diplomat. Of course she has written before this,
and without actually saying it has managed to convey the fact that you
are a monster of perfidy; and Lisbeth, poor child, is probably crying her
eyes out, or imagining she hates you, is ready to accept the first
proposal she receives out of pure pique."
"Great heavens!" I exclaimed, "what on earth can I do?"
"You might go fishing," the Duchess suggested thoughtfully.
"Fishing!" I repeated, " - er, to be sure, but - "
"Riverdale is a very pretty place they tell me," pursued the Duchess in
the same thoughtful tone; "there is a house there, a fine old place called
Fane Court. It stands facing the river, and adjoins Selwyn Park, I
believe."
"Duchess," I exclaimed, as I jotted down the address upon my cuff, "I
owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never - "
"Tut, tut !" said her Grace.
"I think I'll start to-day, and - "
"You really couldn't do better," nodded the duchess.
* * * * *
And so it befell that on this August afternoon I sat in the shade of the
alders fishing, with the smoke of my pipe floating up into the sunshine.
By adroit questioning I had elicited from mine host of the Three Jolly
Anglers the precise whereabouts of Fane Court, the abode of Lisbeth's
sister, and guided by his directions, had chosen this sequestered spot,
where by simply turning my head I could catch a glimpse of its tall
chimneys above the swaying green of the treetops.
It is a fair thing upon a summer's hot afternoon within some shady
bower to lie upon one's back and stare up through a network of
branches into the limitless blue beyond, while the air is full of the stir
of leaves, and the murmur of water among the reeds. Or propped on
lazy elbow, to watch perspiring wretches, short of breath and purple of
visage, urge boats upstream or down, each deluding himself into the
belief that he is enjoying it. Life under such conditions may seem very
fair, as I say; yet I was not happy. The words of the Duchess seemed
everywhere about me.
"You are become the object of her bitterest scorn by now," sobbed the

wind.
"You are become," etc., etc., moaned the river. It was therefore with no
little trepidation that I looked forward to my meeting with Lisbeth.
It was this moment that the bushes parted and a boy appeared. He was a
somewhat diminutive boy, clad in a velvet suit with a lace collar, both
of which were plentifully bespattered with mud. He carried his shoes
and stockings beneath one arm, and in the other hand swung a hazel
branch. He stood with