The Magnificent Montez | Page 6

addition to a
knowledge of the language, Lola acquired a technique that was
afterwards to prove valuable amid other and very different
surroundings. If de Mirecourt (a far from reliable authority) is to be
believed, she was also, during this period, presented to King Charles X
by the British Ambassador. On the evidence of dates, however, this
could not have been the case, for Charles had relinquished his sceptre

and fled to England long before Lola arrived in the country.
After an interval, Sir Jasper felt that he ought to slip across to Paris
himself, if only to make sure that his daughter and ward were "not
getting into mischief, or having their heads filled with ideas." No
sooner said than done and, posting to Dover, he took the packet.
Having relieved his mind as to the welfare of the two girls, he turned
his attention to other matters. As he had anticipated, a number of his
old comrades who had settled in Paris gave him a warm welcome and
readily undertook to "show him round." He enjoyed the experience.
Life was pleasant there, and the theatres and cafés were attractive and a
change from the austerities of Bath. The ladies, too, whom he
encountered when he smoked his cheroot in the Palais Royal gardens,
smiled affably on the "English Milord." Some of them, with very little
encouragement, did more. "No nonsense about waiting for
introductions."
But, despite its amenities, Paris in the early 'thirties was not altogether a
suitable resort for British visitors. The political atmosphere was
distinctly ruffled. Revolution was in the air. Sir Jasper sniffed the
coming changes; and was tactician enough to avoid being engulfed in
the threatened maelstrom by slipping back to England with his young
charges in the nick of time. Others of his compatriots, not so fortunate
or so discreet, found themselves clapped into French prisons.
Returning to the tranquillity of Bath, things resumed their normal
course. Sir Jasper nursed his gout (changing his opinion of French
cooking, to which he attributed a fresh attack) and the girls picked up
the threads they had temporarily dropped.
Always responsive to her environment, Lola expanded quickly in the
sympathetic atmosphere of the Nicolls household. Before long,
Montrose, with its "blue Scotch Calvinism," was but a memory. Instead
of being snubbed and scolded, she was petted and encouraged. As a
result, she grew cheerful and vivacious, full of high spirits and laughter.
Perhaps because of her mother's Spanish blood, she matured early. At
sixteen she was a woman. A remarkably attractive one, too,
giving--with her raven tresses, long-lashed violet eyes, and graceful

figure--promise of the ripe beauty for which she was afterwards to be
distinguished throughout two hemispheres. Of a romantic disposition,
she, naturally enough, had her affaires. Several of them, as it happened.
One of them was with an usher, who had slipped amorous missives into
her prayer-book. Greatly daring, he followed this up by bearding Sir
Jasper in his den and asking permission to "pay his addresses" to his
ward. The warrior's response was unconciliatory. Still, he could not be
angry when, on being challenged, the girl laughed at him.
"Egad!" he declared. "But, before long, Miss, you'll be setting all the
men by the ears."
Prophetic words.
IV
During the interval that elapsed since they last met, Mrs. Craigie had
troubled herself very little about the child she had sent to England.
When, however, she received her portrait from Sir Jasper, together with
a glowing description of her attractiveness and charm, the situation
assumed a fresh aspect. Lola, she felt, had become an asset, instead of
an anxiety; and, as such, must make a "good" marriage. Bath swarmed
with detrimentals, and there was a risk of a pretty girl, bereft of a
mother's watchful care, being snapped up by one of them. Possibly, a
younger son, without a penny with which to bless himself. A
shuddering prospect for an ambitious mother. Obviously, therefore, the
thing to do was to get her daughter out to India and marry her off to a
rich husband. The richer, the better.
Mrs. Craigie went to work in business-like fashion, and cast a maternal
eye over the "eligibles" she met at Government House. The one among
them she ultimately selected as a really desirable son-in-law was a
Calcutta judge, Sir Abraham Lumley. It was true he was more than old
enough to be the girl's father, and was distinctly liverish. But this, she
felt, was beside the point, since he had accumulated a vast number of
rupees, and would, before long, retire on a snug pension.
Sir Abraham was accordingly sounded. Hardened bachelor as he was, a

single glance at Lola's portrait was enough to send his blood-pressure
up to fever heat. In positive rapture at the idea of such fresh