"It's about two," he said, replacing it, "and I want you to meet me at the Marble Arch about a quarter to three."
"Wot for?"
"To follow a lady and gentleman and overhear what they say," said Dowker; "I'll show you whom I mean. Don't lose a word of their conversation and then repeat it all to me."
"I'm fly," said Flip with a wink, and then this curiously assorted pair departed, Dowker to his office for a few minutes, and Flip to wend his way to the rendezvous at the Marble Arch.
[CHAPTER IX.]
THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE.
May Penfold was a very pretty girl, tall and fair-haired, with a pair of merry blue eyes, and a charming complexion. Her parents died when she was young and left her to the guardianship of Sir Rupert Balscombe, who certainly fulfilled his trust admirably. He had her well educated both intellectually and physically, so when she made her début in London Society she was much admired. An accomplished musician and linguist, a daring horse-woman and a kindly disposition, it was no wonder that she was much sought after; but when added to these gifts it was also discovered that she possessed twenty thousand a year in her own right, she became the catch of the season, and many were the attempts made by hard-up scions of noble houses to secure her hand in marriage.
But alas, for the contrary disposition of womankind, she would have none of the gilded youth but fixed her affections on Myles Desmond, a poor Irish gentleman, with nothing to recommend him but a handsome face, a clever brain and a witty tongue. In vain Lord Calliston asked her to be his wife, she coolly refused him, telling the astonished nobleman that neither his morals nor his manners were to her liking, and informed Sir Rupert that she intended to marry Myles Desmond.
The baronet was furious at this declaration, and as May was under age and could not marry without her guardian's consent, he forbad Myles the house and ordered his ward not to speak to him. But see how the duplicity of love can circumvent the watchfulness of guardians. May and Myles met secretly in the Park, at garden parties, and at balls, whenever they chose, and so cleverly did they manage their meetings that Sir Rupert never for a moment suspected the truth. He wanted his ward to marry Calliston, but when that fickle young man ran off with Lady Balscombe he changed his tune altogether, and had May been clever enough to have taken advantage of his dismay, he would doubtless have consented to her union with Myles despite the disadvantages of the match. Sir Rupert was paralysed at the scandal caused by his wife's elopement. He was deeply in love with her, and having known Calliston from his boyhood it had never entered his head that such a thing could happen. He was a very proud man, and when he discovered the elopement he shut himself up in his library, refusing to see anyone. The guilty pair had gone to the Azores, and knowing that sooner or later they would return to England, he awaited their coming with the intention of divorcing his treacherous wife and punishing her seducer.
Sir Rupert having taken up this position, May was left a good deal to herself, and as the whole affair caused such a scandal she, as a ward of Balscombe's, refused to go out into society until some definite settlement of the matter had been arrived at. She had written several times to Myles asking him to see her, but on some plea or another he had always refused to come, much to her bewilderment. When she received his telegram asking her to meet him at the Marble Arch, she was delighted; and slipping out of the house in Park Lane, went to keep her appointment.