She went for the drive, Percy Levant taking the reins and Doris seated beside him, and in after years she remembered, with a singular vividness, every incident of the day, almost every word he spoke. Never had he been in lighter humor, or in better “form;” and if his object was to drive, for the time at least, all remembrance of the marquis and his story of Spenser Churchill’s villainy from her mind, he almost succeeded, and as the hours sped by, the exquisite scenery, the keen, fresh air, and the unflagging wit and humor of her companion brought the color to Doris’ pale cheeks, and drove the lines of care and trouble from her brow.
And through it all he permitted no sign of his own suffering to become visible. The handsome face was serenely cheerful, the pliant lips wore a settled smile, causing Lady Despard to look at him once, and exclaim, with a sigh:
“I wish you could sell me that butterfly nature and disposition of yours, Percy. I would give you more than half my kingdom.”
“Would you?” he said, turning on the box and glancing at Doris as he did so. “Would you?” and a curious expression flashed across his face for a moment. “I’m afraid you would be like the man who thought he was doing a clever thing in buying a sovereign for nineteen shillings and sixpence until he tried to change the coin and discovered that it was—a counterfeit!”
They went to a country inn, at which he had ordered dinner by a servant sent on before, and Lady Despard was enchanted by the dainty simplicity of the menu and the manner in which he played the host, and when he strolled off to smoke his cigar and leave them to trifle with the grapes and the ripe figs which nestled in the center of a huge repousse dish of such flowers as only Italy can produce, Lady Despard patted Doris on the cheek, causing her to start from a reverie, and said:
“Yes, my dear, I will say it again: You have done very well! He will be simply a treasure of a husband. I assure you, I don’t know another man in all my extensive list of friends and acquaintances who could have behaved so perfectly. Fancy taking two women out for the day, keeping them amused every minute, and then giving them all the nice things women love, not ugly chops and steaks, but all these delicate things for dinner. And he’ll be just as fresh and bright all the way home, of course! Yes, I must repeat it, my dear. I think you have made an excellent choice, and if I hadn’t registered a vow never to marry again, why—oh, there’s time to cut you out yet if I tried very hard, so don’t look so exasperatingly self-confident! And now the best thing you can do,” she went on, as Doris smiled and sighed, “is to go and find him, and repay him for all his trouble with one of those sweet, little speeches of yours, and several of those upward glances of those blue eyes which seem so innocent and commonplace, and yet, as I have been told, drive poor men to thoughts of suicide. Go and find him, my dear; he hasn’t gone far, and is, of course, waiting for you to join him. I shall be quite happy and content for an hour, I assure you. Come back when the moon is up above those trees, and then we will start.”
“Which means that you want to go to sleep,” said Doris, smiling as she rose.
“Quite right, dear,” assented Lady Despard, serenely. “I want to go to sleep for a few minutes, and dream that I, too, have got a handsome young man who is fortunately poor enough to have to work for me, and who worships the ground I tread on. Go and find him, and—be good to him, for he deserves it!”
Doris went slowly in the direction Percy Levant had taken, but she did not see him, and presently, losing herself in her thoughts, she wandered across the lawn which stretched between the inn and the high road, and, leaning against the low wall, gave herself to brooding over the confession which the marquis had made—if confession it could be called!
Presently she was startled by the sound of wheels coming down the steep road to her right, and a few minutes afterward she saw a traveling carriage pull up at the door of the inn, amidst a great bustle and confusion, the stamping of horses’ hoofs, the click of changing harness, and the shouting of outriders.