‘Don’t alarm yourself, Lady Ilfracombe,’ replied Jack Portland, who also appeared to be in unusually good spirits that afternoon, ‘my word is my bond. Besides, as you leave Usk so soon, it may be my last opportunity of enjoying a tête-à-tête with your ladyship for some time to come. Is the date of your departure definitely fixed?’
‘Definitely!’ replied the earl. ‘We start en route for Wiesbaden by the three o’clock train to-morrow afternoon. We don’t expect to be on the Continent more than a few weeks, Jack, and when we return to Thistlemere for the shooting, you must join us as usual.’
Mr Portland looked important.
‘Well, I’m not quite sure of that, old chap. It’s awfully good of you to ask me, but we will talk of it afterwards. If you don’t start till three to-morrow, I expect I shall have some news to tell you before you go.’
‘News!’ cried Lady Ilfracombe. ‘Oh, Mr Portland, what is it? Do tell us at once. What is it about? Anything to do with us, or does it only concern yourself? Is it good news, or bad? Now don’t keep us in this terrible suspense.’
‘How like a woman,’ exclaimed Mr Portland. ‘How much would you leave for to-morrow at this rate. No, Lady Ilfracombe, my news must really wait. It will come on you as a great surprise, but I hope it won’t be a disagreeable one. Now, there is food for your curiosity to feed on for the rest of this afternoon. Grand news, remember, and something you have never dreamt of before, the most incredible thing you could conceive.’
‘You’re going to be married,’ cried Nora, with feminine audacity, which set the whole table in a roar.
‘Well, you have drawn on your imagination, Lady Ilfracombe, this time,’ said Sir Archibald. ‘Mr Portland, married! I should as soon think of my kestrel hawk going in for the domesticities.’
‘Jack married,’ laughed the earl. ‘Come, you have indeed thought of the most incredible thing you could conceive. We shall have you writing a novel after this, Nora. You have evidently a gift for imagining the infinitely impossible.’
‘There must be something very ridiculous about me, I fear,’ said Mr Portland, ‘that everyone thinks it such a far-fetched idea that I should settle down.’