“What are you going to do?” she said, in a hurried whisper: “you can take no notice of—of——;” and unable to find words to express her meaning, she paused in confusion. D’Almayne finished her sentence for her:—
“——Of those people’s ignorance of the usages of society? No, I am not so inconsiderate; pardon me that I allowed you to see my just indignation, but for the moment I was completely carried away by feeling. Now,” he continued, “if you can make the effort, let us join the others; no one has, as yet, observed your indisposition.”
By way of reply, Kate rose and took his proffered arm.
“Get them away from this place,” she said, hurriedly; “I shall suffocate if I remain here longer.”
Horace bowed assent, and after exchanging a few indifferent remarks with Alice and Lord Alfred Courtland, turned to Mr. Crane, observing—
“Will you forgive me for pleading the cause of one of your new carriage-horses? The coachman tells me it has a slight cough; and it will scarcely tend to get rid of the ailment to wait too long in this piercing east wind.”
“No, indeed,” cherupped Mr. Crane; “and a horse that cost a hundred and thirty puns (he meant pounds!) must not be injured, even, if I may be allowed to say so, to please the ladies.” And having spoken, straightway he fell into a fidget; so that, in less than two minutes, the noble productions of the Amalgamated Amateurs became as a dream of the past to our dramatis personæ.
On reaching the street, with his wife hanging on his arm, Mr. Crane, ere he placed her in the carriage, thus addressed his domestic—
“Why, coachman, you never told me one of the horses had a cough.”
As he spoke, Kate, perfectly understanding that the horse’s cough was an invention of D’Almayne’s, to enable them to get away from the gallery in accordance with her wishes, involuntarily glanced towards him. But where manœuvring and finesse were required, Horace was quite in his element. Catching the attention of the servant (whom he had himself recommended) by a fictitious attack of the malady under which the quadruped was supposed to labour, he, by an almost imperceptible contraction of the eyelid, telegraphed his wishes, ensuring their fulfilment by suggestively tapping the silver head of his cane, to express that in that metal should his compliance be rewarded; so Mr. Crane was glibly informed that his horse had suffered under a bronchial affection for about the space of four days, more or less; but that he, the coachman, having applied an invaluable specific, known only to himself, had not considered the matter sufficiently serious to trouble his master withal;—for which reticence he bore meekly Mr. Crane’s peevish rebuke, consoled by the expectation of five shillings the next morning from Horace D’Almayne.