The Absentee Part 29

'She was clear-sighted,' said Lord Colambre.

'She was clear-sighted,' repeated Miss Nugent; 'but if you mean that she was vain, and apt to fancy people in love with her, I can a.s.sure you that you are mistaken. Never was woman, young or old, more clear-sighted to the views of those by whom she was addressed. No flattery, no fas.h.i.+on, could blind her judgment.'

'She knew how to choose a friend well, I am sure,' said Lord Colambre.

'And a friend for life too, I am sure you will allow and she had such numbers, such strange variety of admirers, as might have puzzled the choice and turned the brain of any inferior person. Such a succession of lovers as she has had this summer, ever since you went to Ireland--they appeared and vanished like figures in a magic-lantern. She had three n.o.ble admirers--rank in three different forms offered themselves. First came in, hobbling, rank and gout; next, rank and gaming; then rank, Very high rank, over head and ears in debt. All of these were rejected; and, as they moved off; I thought Mrs. Broadhurst would have broken her heart. Next came fas.h.i.+on, with his head, heart, and soul in his cravat--he quickly made his bow, or rather his nod, and walked off, taking a pinch of snuff. Then came a man of gallantry, but,' whispered Miss Nugent, 'there was a mistress in the wood; and my friend could have nothing to do with that gentleman.'

'Now, if she liked the man, interrupted Lord Clonbrony, 'and I suppose she did, for all women, but yourself, Grace, like men of gallantry, Miss Broadhurst was a goose for refusing him on account of the mistress; because she might have been bought up, and settled with a few thousand pounds.'

'Be that as it may,' said Miss Nugent; 'my friend did not like, and would not accept, of the man of gallantry; so he retired and comforted himself with a copy of verses. Then came a man of wit--but still it was wit without worth; and presently came "worth without wit." She preferred "wit and worth united," which she fortunately at last found, Lord Colambre, in your friend, Sir Arthur Berryl.'

'Grace, my girl!' said her uncle, 'I'm glad to see you've got up your spirits again, though you were not to be bridesmaid. Well, I hope you'll be bride soon--I'm sure you ought to be--and you should think of rewarding that poor Mr. Salisbury, who plagues me to death, whenever he can catch hold of me, about you. He must have our definitive at last, you know, Grace.'

A silence ensued, which neither Miss Nugent nor Lord Colambre seemed willing, or able, to break.

Very good company, faith, you three!--One of ye asleep, and the other two saying nothing, to keep one awake. Colambre, have you no Dublin news? Grace, have you no Buxton scandal? What was it Lady Clonbrony told us you'd tell us, about the oddness of Miss Broadhurst's settling her marriage? Tell me that, for I love to hear odd things.'

'Perhaps you will not think it odd,' said she. 'One evening--but I should begin by telling you that three of her admirers, beside Sir Arthur Berryl, had followed her to Buxton, and had been paying their court to her all the time we were there; and at last grew impatient for her decision.'

'Ay, for her definitive!' said Lord Clonbrony. Miss Nugent was put out again, but resumed--

'So one evening, just before the dancing began, the gentlemen were all standing round Miss Broadhurst; one of them said, "I wish Miss Broadhurst would decide--that whoever she dances with to-night should be her partner for life; what a happy man he would be!"

'"But how can I decide?" said Miss Broadhurst.

'"I wish I had a friend to plead for me!" said one of the suitors, looking at me.

'"Have you no friend of your own?" said Miss Broadhurst.

'"Plenty of friends," said the gentleman.

'"Plenty!--then you must be a very happy man," replied Miss Broadhurst.

"Come," said she, laughing, "I will dance with that man who can convince me--that he has, near relations excepted, one true friend in the world!

That man who has made the best friend, I dare say, will make the best husband!"

'At that moment,' continued Miss Nugent, 'I was certain who would be her choice. The gentlemen all declared at first that they had abundance of excellent friends the best friends in the world! but when Miss Broadhurst cross-examined them, as to what their friends had done for them, or what they were willing to do, modern friends.h.i.+p dwindled into a ridiculously small compa.s.s. I cannot give you the particulars of the cross-examination, though it was conducted with great spirit and humour by Miss Broadhurst; but I can tell you the result--that Sir Arthur Berryl, by incontrovertible facts, and eloquence warm from the heart, convinced everybody present that he had the best friend in the world; and Miss Broadhurst, as he finished speaking, gave him her hand, and he led her off in triumph--So you see, Lord Colambre, you were at last the cause of my friend's marriage!'

She turned to Lord Colambre as she spoke these words, with such an affectionate smile, and such an expression of open, inmost tenderness in her whole countenance, that our hero could hardly resist the impulse of his pa.s.sion--could hardly restrain himself from falling at her feet that instant, and declaring his love. 'But St. Omar! St. Omar!--It must not be!'

'I must be gone!' said Lord Clonbrony, pulling out his watch. 'It is time to go to my club; and poor Terry will wonder what has become of me.'

Lord Colambre instantly offered to accompany his father; much to Lord Clonbrony's, and more to Miss Nugent's surprise.

'What!' said she to herself, 'after so long an absence, leave me!--Leave his mother, with whom he always used to stay--on purpose to avoid me!

What can I have done to displease him? It is clear it was not about Miss Broadhurst's marriage he was offended; for he looked pleased, and like himself, whilst I was talking of that; but the moment afterwards, what a constrained, unintelligible expression of countenance and leaves me to go to a club which he detests!'

As the gentlemen shut the door on leaving the room, Lady Clonbrony wakened, and, starting up, exclaimed--

'What's the matter? Are they gone? Is Colambre gone?'

'Yes, ma'am, with my uncle.'

'Very odd! very odd of him to go and leave me! he always used to stay with me--what did he say about me?'

'Nothing, ma'am.'

'Well, then, I have nothing to say about him, or about anything, indeed, for I'm excessively tired and stupid--alone in London's as bad as anywhere else. Ring the bell, and we'll go to bed directly--if you have no objection, Grace.'

Grace made no objection; Lady Clonbrony went to bed and to sleep in ten minutes, Miss Nugent went to bed; but she lay awake, considering what could be the cause of her cousin Colambre's hard unkindness, and of 'his altered eye.' She was openness itself and she determined that, the first moment she could speak to him alone, she would at once ask for an explanation. With this resolution, she rose in the morning, and went down to the breakfast-room, in hopes of meeting him, as it had formerly been his custom to be early; and she expected to find him reading in his usual place.

CHAPTER XIV

No--Lord Colambre was not in his accustomed place, reading in the breakfast-room: nor did he make his appearance till both his father and mother had been some time at breakfast.

'Good morning to you, my Lord Colambre,' said his mother, in a reproachful tone, the moment he entered; 'I am much obliged to you for your company last night.'

'Good morning to you, Colambre,' said his father, in a more jocose tone of reproach; 'I am obliged to you for your good company last night.'

'Good morning to you, Lord Colambre,' said Miss Nugent; and though she endeavoured to throw all reproach from her looks, and to let none be heard in her voice, yet there was a slight tremulous motion in that voice which struck our hero to the heart.

'I thank you, ma'am, for missing me,' said he, addressing himself to his mother; 'I stayed away but half an hour; I accompanied my father to St.

James's Street, and when I returned I found that every one had retired to rest.'

'Oh, was that the case?' said Lady Clonbrony; 'I own I thought it very unlike you to leave me in that sort of way.'

'And, lest you should be jealous of that half-hour when he was accompanying me,' said Lord Clonbrony, 'I must remark, that, though I had his body with me, I had none of his mind; that he left at home with you ladies, or with some fair one across the water, for the deuce of two words did he bestow upon me, with all his pretence of accompanying me.'

'Lord Colambre seems to have a fair chance of a pleasant breakfast,'

said Miss Nugent, smiling; 'reproaches on all sides.'

'I have heard none on your side, Grace,' said Lord Clonbrony; 'and that's the reason, I suppose, he wisely takes his seat beside you. But, come, we will not badger you any more, my dear boy. We have given him as fine a complexion amongst us as if he had been out hunting these three hours; have not we, Grace?'

'When Colambre has been a season or two more in Lon'on, he'll not be so easily put out of countenance,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'you don't see young men of fas.h.i.+on here blus.h.i.+ng about nothing.'

'No, nor about anything, my dear,' said Lord Clonbrony; 'but that's no proof they do nothing they ought to blush for.'

'What they do, there's no occasion for ladies to inquire,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'but this I know, that it's a great disadvantage to a young man of a certain rank to blush; for no people, who live in a certain set, ever do; and it is the most opposite thing possible to a certain air, which, I own, I think Colambre wants; and now that he has done travelling in Ireland, which is no use in PINT of giving a gentleman a travelled air, or anything of that sort, I hope he will put himself under my conduct for next winter's campaign in town.'

Lord Clonbrony looked as if he did not know how to look; and, after drumming on the table for some seconds, said--

'Colambre, I told you how it would be. That's a fatal hard condition of yours.'

'Not a hard condition, I hope, my dear father,' said Lord Colambre.

'Hard it must be, since it can't be fulfilled, or won't be fulfilled, which comes to the same thing,' replied Lord Clonbrony, sighing.

'I am persuaded, sir, that it will be fulfilled,' said Lord Colambre; 'I am persuaded that, when my mother hears the truth, and the whole truth--when she finds that your happiness, and the happiness of her whole family, depend upon her yielding her taste on one subject--'