“Lord Walthamstowe and he have come to an arrangement,” said Pennell, speaking very slowly, “that his marriage with Miss Elinor Leyton shall take place sooner than was at first intended. The Limerick Rangers are under orders for foreign service, and Captain Pullen naturally wishes to take his wife out with him, and though, of course, all this is no excuse for his omitting to write you a letter, the necessary preparations and the consequent excitement may have put his duty out of his head. Of course,” he continued, “you know that Ralph is engaged to marry Miss Leyton?”
“I ’eard something of it,” replied the Baroness reluctantly, “but one never knows what is true and what is not. Anyway, Captain Pullen didn’t give out the news ’imself! ’E seemed ’appy enough without Miss Leyton, didn’t ’e, ’Arriet?”
But turning round to emphasise her words, she found that Harriet had not followed them into the library. Whereupon she became confidential.
“To tell you the truth, Mr. Pennell,” she continued, “’e just be’aved like a scoundrel to our little ’Arriet there. ’E ran after the gal all day, and spent all ’is evenings in our private sitting-room, gazing at ’er as if ’e would eat ’er, whilst she sang and played to ’im. ’E never said a word about marrying Miss Leyton. It was all ‘’Ally, ’Ally, ’Ally’ with ’im. And if the gal ’adn’t been a deal too clever for ’im, and wise enough to see what a vain zany ’e is, she might ’ave broken ’er ’eart over it. The conceited jackanapes!”
“But she has not fretted,” said Anthony Pennell eagerly.
“Not she! I wouldn’t let ’er! She’s meat for Captain Pullen’s master! A gal with fifteen ’undred a year in ’er own ’ands, and with a pair of eyes like that! Oh! no! ’Arriet can pick up a ’usband worth two of your cousin any day!”
“I should think so indeed,” replied Mr. Pennell fervently, “I have heard Mrs. Pullen mention Miss Brandt, but she did not prepare me for meeting so beautiful a girl. But I can hardly wonder at my cousin running away from her, Madame Gobelli. Knowing himself to be already engaged, Miss Brandt must have proved a most dangerous companion. Perhaps he found his heart was no longer under his own control, and thought discretion the better part of valour. You must try and look upon his conduct in the best light you can!”
“Oh! well! it don’t signify much anyway, for ’e’s no miss at the Red ’Ouse, I can tell you, and ’Arriet could marry to-morrow if she chose, and to a man worthy of ’er. But now you must look at my Spode.”
She walked up to a tall cabinet at one end of the room, which was piled with china, and took up a fragile piece in her hands.
“Do you see that?” she said, turning up the plate and showing the mark upon the bottom, “there it is, you see! There’s the M. These five pieces are said to be the oldest in existence. And here’s a cup of Limoges. And that’s Majolica. Do you know the marks of Majolica? They’re some of the rarest known! A cross on a shield. The first real bit of china I ever possessed was a Strasbourg. Have you ever seen any Dutch Pottery—marked with an A.P.? I picked that up at an old Jew’s shop in the market in Naples. And this Capo di Monte, strange to say, in a back alley in Brighton. There’s nothing I like better than to grub about back slums and look for something good. Some of my best pieces ’ave come out of pawnbrokers’ shops. That plate you’re looking at is old Flemish—more than two ’undred years, I believe! It came out of the rag market at Bruges. There used to be first-rate pickings to be ’ad at Bruges and Ghent and in Antwerp some years ago, but the English ’ave pretty well cleared ’em out.”