Count Bunker Part 36

"Can't think of any one."

Suspicion, fear, bewilderment, made her reckless.

"Have you been in Scotland--at your castle, as I heard you were going?"

A mighty change came over the young man. He backed away from her, stammering hurriedly,

"No--yes--I--er--why do you ask me that?"

"Is there any other Lord Tulliwuddle?" she demanded breathlessly.

He gave her one wild look, and then without so much as a farewell had turned and elbowed his way out of the room.

"It's all up!" he said to himself. "There's no use trying to play that game any longer--Essington has muddled it somehow. Well, I'm free to do what I like now!"

In this state of mind he found himself in the street, hailed the first hansom, and drove headlong from the dangerous regions of Belgravia.

Till the middle of the next day the Baroness still managed to keep her own counsel, though she was now so alarmed that she was twenty times on the point of telling everything to her mother. But the arrival of a note from Sir Justin ended her irresolution. It ran thus:

"MY DEAR ALICIA,--I have just learned for certain that Lord T. is at his place in Scotland. Singularly enough, he is described as apparently of foreign extraction, and I hear that he is accompanied by a friend of the name of Count Bunker. I am just setting out for the North myself, and trust that I may be able to elucidate the mystery. Yours very truly,

"JUSTIN WALLINGFORD."

"Foreign extraction! Count Bunker!" gasped the Baroness; and without stopping to debate the matter again, she rushed into her mother's arms, and there sobbed out the strange story of her second letter and the two Lord Tulliwuddles.

It were difficult to say whether anger at her daughter's deceit, indignation with the treacherous Baron, or a stern pleasure in finding her worst prognostications in a fair way to being proved, was the uppermost emotion in Lady Grillyer's mind when she had listened to this relation. Certainly poor Alicia could not but think that sympathy for her troubles formed no ingredient in the mixture.

"To think of your concealing this from me for so long!" she cried: "and Sir Justin abetting you! I shall tell him very plainly what I think of him! But if my daughter sets an example in treachery, what can one expect of one's friends?"

"After all, mamma, it was my own and Rudolph's concern more than your's!" exclaimed Alicia, flaring up for an instant.

"Don't answer me, child!" thundered the Countess. "Fetch me a railway time-table, and say nothing that may add to your sin!"

"A time-table, mamma? What for?"

"I am going to Scotland," p.r.o.nounced the Countess.

"Then I shall go too!"

"Indeed you shall not. You will wait here till I have brought Rudolph back to you."

The Baroness said nothing aloud, but within her wounded heart she thought bitterly,

"Mamma seems to forget that even worms will turn sometimes!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

"A decidedly delectable residence," said Count Bunker to himself as his dog-cart approached the lodge gates of The Lash. "And a very proper setting for the pleasant scenes so shortly to be enacted. Lodge, avenue, a bogus turret or two, and a flagstaff on top of 'em--by Gad, I think one may safely a.s.sume a tolerable cellar in such a mansion."

As he drove up the avenue between a double line of ancient elms and sycamores, his satisfaction increased and his spirits rose ever higher.

"I wonder if I can forecast the evening: a game of three-handed bridge, in which I trust I'll be lucky enough to lose a little silver, that'll put 'em in good-humor and make old Miss What-d'ye-may-call-her the more willing to go to bed early; then the departure of the chaperon; and then the tete-a-tete! I hope to Heaven I haven't got rusty!"

With considerable satisfaction he ran over the outfit he had brought, deeming it even on second thoughts a singularly happy selection: the dining coat with pale-blue lapels, the white tie of a new material and cut borrowed from the Baron's finery, the socks so ravis.h.i.+ngly embroidered that he had more than once caught the ladies at Hechnahoul casting affectionate glances upon them.

"A first-cla.s.s turn-out," he thought. "And what a lucky thing I thought of borrowing a banjo from young Gallos.h.!.+ A c.o.o.n song in the twilight will break the ground prettily."

By this time they had stopped before the door, and an elderly man-servant, instead of waiting for the Count, came down the steps to meet him. In his manner there was something remarkably sheepish and constrained, and, to the Count's surprise, he thrust forth his hand almost as if he expected it to be shaken. Bunker, though a trifle puzzled, promptly handed him the banjo case, remarking pleasantly--

"My banjo; take care of it, please."

The man started so violently that he all but dropped it upon the steps.

"What the deuce did he think I said?" wondered the Count. "'Banjo' can't have sounded 'dynamite.'"

He entered the house, and found himself in a pleasant hall, where his momentary uneasiness was at once forgotten in the charming welcome of his hostess. Not only she, but her chaperon, received him with a flattering warmth that realized his utmost expectations.

"It was so good of you to come!" cried Miss Wallingford.

"So very kind," murmured Miss Minch.e.l.l.

"I knew you wouldn't think it too unorthodox!" added Julia.

"I'm afraid orthodoxy is a crime I shall never swing for," said the Count, with his most charming smile.

"I am sure my father wouldn't REALLY mind," said Julia.

"Not if Sir Justin shared your enthusiasm, dear," added Miss Minch.e.l.l.

"I must teach him to!"

"Good Lord!" thought the Count. "This is friendly indeed."

A few minutes pa.s.sed in the exchange of these preliminaries, and then his hostess said, with a pretty little air of disciples.h.i.+p that both charmed and slightly puzzled him,

"You do still think that n.o.body should dine later than six, don't you? I have ordered dinner for six to-night."

"Six!" exclaimed the Count, but recovering himself, added, "An ideal hour--and it is half-past five now. Perhaps I had better think of dressing."

"What YOU call dressing!" smiled Julia, to his justifiable amazement.

"Let me show you to your room."