Jacob dictated a few letters, studied his stockbroker’s list for half an hour, and drove to Kensington Gardens. Lady Mary was almost the first person he saw. She greeted him with a friendly little nod and led him from the broad avenue into one of the narrower paths. From the first he had been aware that Lady Mary, escaped from the shadow of her parents, was a very different person.
“Well?” she asked, smiling at him, “what did you think of my ingenuous little letter?”
Jacob glanced at her doubtfully. He had the impression that she was reading his thoughts.
“You probably decided that it would amuse you to fall in with the scheme,” she continued, “although I expect you saw through it quite easily. Well, the scheme doesn’t really exist. My mother dictated the letter and I wrote it. I haven’t the least idea of giving you back a penny of that money—in fact, it’s all spent already. Still, if you like, you can think of me as the ingénue with a conscience, who wants reassuring but doesn’t want to part. That was my rôle.”
“I see that you have your brother’s sense of humour,” he remarked.
“Heaven knows where we got it from!” she exclaimed. “Mother’s idea appears to be that, as a result of this clandestine interview, I am to walk in Kensington Gardens with you every morning until one day we find ourselves late for luncheon and you take me to a restaurant. Compromising situation number one. Intoxicated with pleasure, I hint—you not being supposed to notice that it is a hint—at a dinner and theatre. We go, are discovered, my mother asks your intentions. Behold me, Lady Mary Pratt, restoring the family to a condition of affluence.”
Jacob laughed till the tears stood in his eyes.
“The idea doesn’t seem to appeal to you!”
“Not a bit,” she answered frankly. “I like you very much—I like the little crease about your eyes, which deepens when you laugh. And I like your mouth. But as a matter of fact, I’m rather in love with some one else, and I’m going to marry him soon. He’s got quite enough money for me, although he can’t carry the family.”
Jacob sighed.