Thus saying, the gay girl ran lightly through the long suite of rooms, leaving Captain Delaware standing nearly where she had found him, with a good deal of admiration at her beauty, and a good deal of surprise at the mingling of kindness both with levity, and with the slightest possible spice of coquetry, which she had displayed in their brief conversation.
Ere she was well out of sight, the step that had been heard above, might be distinguished descending the stairs. There is not a little character in a step, and the sound of Lord Ashborough's was peculiar. Perhaps the enfeebling power of time--which, what with one aid or another, was not very apparent in his person--marked its progress more decidedly in his step than in any thing else. There was a certain degree of creaking feebleness in it, especially at an early hour of the morning, when he was just out of bed, which, joined with a slow precision of fall, indicated a declension in the firm and sturdy manhood. His lordship felt it, and in society he covered the slight falling off by an affectation of grave and thoughtful dignity of movement,--but his valet-de-chambre knew better.
Captain Delaware, however, did not; and as the earl entered the room, with a roll of papers in his hand, like Talma in Sylla--he acted a good deal, by the way--his young relative thought him a very grave and reverend signor; and would rather have lain for an hour along side an enemy's frigate, yard-arm to yard-arm, than have grappled with so stern and thoughtful a personage, on so disagreeable a business as that which he came to discuss. He had undertaken it resolutely, however, and he was not a man to flinch before any coward apprehensions, moral or physical.
The first expression of his lordship's countenance, when his eyes fell upon his visiter, was not certainly of a nature greatly to encourage him. For a moment--a single instant--nature got the better, and a slight shade of that loathing dislike, with which one regards some poisonous reptile, or the object of some peculiar antipathy, passed over Lord Ashborough's features. It was gone as quickly; and with a much more condescending and agreeable smile than he had bestowed upon him on his former visit, the earl advanced, and welcomed him to London.
Captain Delaware was of course very well disposed to welcome any show of kindness; and he said a few words in regard to his regret at having to trouble Lord Ashborough again.
"Oh! we will speak of all that after breakfast," said the earl. "When last I saw you I was hurried and fretted by a thousand things, and had no opportunity of showing you any attention. Indeed, I have but little leisure now, the duties of my office--he held a sinecure post, which required him to sign his name twice a-year--the duties of my office claiming great part of my time. But you must really, as long as you remain in London, spend your days here; and my niece, Maria, who has nothing to do, will show you all over the world, under the fair excuse of your cousinship. But let us to breakfast. Maria will not be down for this hour; but I never wait for that lazy girl."
Lord Ashborough was not a little surprised to find his niece in the breakfast-room, and praised her ironically on her habits of early rising; but Miss Beauchamp answered at once, "Oh! I had a reason for getting up soon to-day, otherwise I should certainly not have done so. To contemplate my dear uncle for an hour, with one foot crossed over the other, letting his coffee get cold, and reading the newspaper, is too great a treat to be indulged in every morning."
"And pray, my fair niece," demanded Lord Ashborough, smiling at a picture of himself, which was not without the cold sort of importance he chose to assume; "and pray, my fair niece, what was the particular cause of your infringing your ancient and beloved habits this morning?"
"First and foremost, of course," replied Miss Beauchamp, with a graceful bend of the head to her cousin, "to see Captain Delaware, whose visit you yesterday evening led me to expect; but, in the next place, my full resolution and determination was to take possession of your lordship during breakfast, and tease you in every sort of way, till you agree to leave this horrid place London, now that you are positively the last gentleman remaining in it, except the men in red-coats that walk up and down St. James's Street, and look disconsolate from June till January. But they are forced to stay, poor fellows! You are not."
"There is no use of going out of town, Maria, to come up again the next day," replied Lord Ashborough. "Parliament will certainly sit for a few days this month, and I must be present. But, in regard to your cousin, I intend to make him over to you for the whole day, as I have some business to transact; and, therefore, you see you would not have been deprived of his visit."