The Eldest Son Part 26

"Well, I can't, and I'm a c.o.c.kney," said Sir Herbert. "Still, I agree with you. This is the sort of day for pleasure."

So they spent the whole of the mild winter day in the open, lunched simply on the warm side of a hedge, and came back at dusk, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The Squire had been at his best, the country gentleman, busying himself in the open air with the pursuits his forefathers had found their pleasure in for generations, allied to his lands, simple in his enjoyment of what they provided for him, companionable, master of field-craft, perfect as a host. "I haven't had such a day for a long time," he said as they stood before the hall door being relieved of their paraphernalia. "I've forgotten all my troubles."

Sir Herbert was touched. He found the man tiresome in so many aspects of life, stupid and overbearing. But he had also something of the appealing simplicity of a child. He was in trouble, and he had been able to forget it all while he had amused himself.

"It's the best day I've had for a long time too," he said. "You've given me a great deal of pleasure, Edward."

But once in the house, the Squire's worries rolled back on him--not the big trouble, which he had no time to brood over just now, although it was always present in the background of his mind, but the little annoyances incident to his entertaining a lot of people whose ways were not his ways, and who interfered with the settled course of his life.

Lady Aldeburgh had given him great annoyance, and as for Bobby Trench, it was as much as he could do to be civil to him. On the other hand, he was more pleased with his son Humphrey than he had been for a long time, and he had also come to feel that his son Walter was a man to be relied on, in spite of his obstinate choice of a profession unsuitable for a son of his, and his management of his life since he had taken up that profession. If it had not been for this new-found satisfaction in his younger sons, perhaps he would not have been able to prevent the thoughts of his eldest son spoiling his day, and he would certainly have been far more actively annoyed with Lady Aldeburgh and Bobby Trench.

For neither of those gay b.u.t.terflies of fas.h.i.+on had been able or cared to adjust themselves to the Sabbath calm of a house managed in the way that Kencote was. Lady Aldeburgh, having spent the morning in her room, written her letters and done her duty to privacy for the day, came down to luncheon ready and willing to be amused. And there was no amus.e.m.e.nt provided for her. After luncheon she had played a game of running round the billiard-table and knocking b.a.l.l.s into pockets with the bare hand with Bobby Trench, and fortunately the Squire, at rest in his room, with the _Spectator_ on his knee, had not known what they were doing. But this mild amus.e.m.e.nt had soon palled, and the problem was to find something for two active young things to do in its place.

"Have you _ever_ stayed in a house like this before, Bobby dear?" asked Lady Aldeburgh.

Bobby dear said that he never had, and the powers above being favourable, never would again.

"It's perfectly deadly," said Lady Aldeburgh. "What on earth are the rest of them doing?"

"Slumbering on their beds," replied Bobby Trench; "and in half an hour or so they will all appear, rubbing their eyes, and we shall go for a nice long walk."

"Not me," said her ladys.h.i.+p, with a glance at the leaden sky outside and the bare leafless trees shaking in a cold wind. "Do let's get somewhere by a cosey fire and have a rubber of bridge."

"Who's the four?" asked Bobby Trench. "Shall we wake up old Clinton, and ask him? There are risks. It might be amusing to see somebody in an apoplectic fit, and again it might not."

"Don't be foolish," said Lady Aldeburgh, patting him on the arm.

"Humphrey would play, and I'll tell Susan she's wanted."

"They are going out for a walk together. It's a case," said Bobby Trench boldly.

"Whatever put that into your head?" enquired her ladys.h.i.+p, with wide-open eyes. "It's quite absurd."

"Oh, I think Susan's a very nice girl," replied Bobby Trench. "Though I admit it's absurd to take much notice of her while you're about."

Lady Aldeburgh hit his sleeve again with her jewelled hand. "If you talk like that I shall go away," she said. "When I said it was absurd I meant that neither of them has a s.h.i.+lling."

"Humphrey ought to have a good many s.h.i.+llings if he plays his hand well with old Papa Beetroot just now," replied Bobby Trench. "There's a deuce of an upset. I should hold for a rise if I were you."

"You shouldn't talk so disrespectfully. You are disrespectful to me, and to Mr. Clinton, who is a relation of mine--and the head of our family, or so he says. And as for Humphrey, he's a nice boy--certainly the pick of this particular bunch--but Susan wouldn't look at him."

"Why not? He's civilised, if his people aren't."

"She could do much better, and I shouldn't allow it. Of course they are friends, and I don't mind that. You must remember that they are cousins."

"Is it fifty-sixth or fifty-seventh cousins?" asked Bobby Trench innocently. "Well, you know best, of course, but you've got other girls besides Susan to look after, and if you don't take care she'll get left. No, my dear lady, it's no use trying to deceive me. You're quite ready to let Susan marry Humphrey if Papa Mangel-Wurzel will put up the stakes. Aren't you, now? Confess."

"I shan't confess anything so ridiculous," said Lady Aldeburgh petulantly. "What I want to do is to play bridge, and relieve myself of this frightful boredom. I shouldn't have come here if I'd known what it was like. _Can't_ we get a four?"

"I'll see about it later on," said Bobby Trench. "Perhaps after tea.

Why not picquet in the meantime?"

"It's a stupid game," said Lady Aldeburgh. "But if you make the stakes high enough it would be better than nothing."

"I'll make the stakes what you like," said Bobby Trench. "I'll pay you if I lose, and if you lose you must pay me."

Lady Aldeburgh having consented to this not unreasonable arrangement, Bobby Trench rang the bell and asked the servant who answered it to bring a card-table and some cards. Although somewhat surprised at the order he presently fulfilled it, and the game proceeded until tea-time.

All the members of the house party met over the tea-table, and afterwards Lady Aldeburgh, having whispered to her daughter, went out of the room followed by Bobby Trench. Lady Susan then whispered something to Humphrey, who looked rather disturbed, and then also went out of the room with her. Now the whispers had not been in the least obtrusive, or of the nature to arouse comment, but the Squire happened to have observed them both, and told Joan as he went back into his room to find Humphrey and send him to him, not antic.i.p.ating hearing of anything wrong, but thinking that he might as well know what was going on as not.

Joan was delighted with the errand. She also had observed the whispers, and was at least as eager as her father to find out what was on foot. She went to several rooms before she opened the door of the billiard-room, which was little used, and never on a Sunday. There she found Lady Aldeburgh and Bobby Trench seated at a card-table, and Humphrey standing by them with Susan Clinton at his side. "Humphrey, father wants to speak to you for a minute," she said, and then ran away to find Nancy and tell her of the terrible thing that was happening.

"Well, if you don't mind, then," said Humphrey, preparing to obey the summons, and Lady Aldeburgh said, "Oh no, not in the least. I didn't know there would be any objection."

Joan, pa.s.sing through the hall, was again stopped by the Squire, who was standing at the door of his room. "I told you to fetch Humphrey,"

he said irritably. "Why have you been so long? I want to speak to him."

"I couldn't find him, father," said Joan.

"Where was he?" asked the Squire.

"He's just coming," replied Joan.

"I asked you _where_ he was," persisted the Squire, and when she said he had been in the billiard-room, asked her what he was doing there.

"Talking to Lady Aldeburgh," said Joan; and the Squire asked her what _she_ was doing.

Then it came out. "Playing at cards with Mr. Trench," said Joan, who disliked Lady Aldeburgh and Bobby Trench equally, and didn't see why she shouldn't answer a plain question in plain terms.

Then the Squire went into his room, shutting the door decisively, and Humphrey went in after him, Joan having escaped for the second time.

Inside the Squire's room there was an outbreak. "I will not have it in this house. I simply _will not_ have it," was the burden of his indignant cry.

"Well, look here, father," said Humphrey quietly. "I didn't know what was happening, and directly I did I stopped them. They gave it up at once when I said you wouldn't like it. They couldn't tell, you know.

Everybody does it now."

The Squire spluttered his wrath. "I call it disgraceful," he said. "I don't know what the world's coming to. Cards on Sunday in a respectable G.o.d-fearing house! And you defend it!"

"No, I don't," said Humphrey. "I told you that I had stopped them."

The Squire looked at him. "Did they want you to play?" he asked. "You and a girl like Lady Susan! You don't mean to tell me her mother wanted her to play? Is the girl accustomed to that sort of thing, I should like to know?"

Humphrey did not want to give Lady Aldeburgh away, but rather her than Susan, and rather Bobby Trench than either of them.

"Susan doesn't care about it," he said. "Lady Aldeburgh--well, you can see what she is, can't you?--nothing like as sensible as her daughter.

She'll do what anybody wants her to."

"Oh, then it's Master Trench I'm to thank for making my house a gambling saloon on a Sunday!" exclaimed the Squire. "If he wasn't my guest, I would say something to that young cub that would surprise him.

Anyhow, he'll never come into this house again, and I must say, seeing what he is, that I wonder at your asking him at all."