“Most improper,” agreed Mr. Beaumaris. “All these things shall be forthcoming.”
“You cannot buy such things for me!” gasped Arabella, shocked.
“I assure you I should enjoy doing it.”
She stared at him, and then exclaimed wretchedly: “How dreadful it all is! I never, never thought I should come to this! I daresay it seems the merest commonplace to you, but to me—But I see that it is of no use to cavil!”
The tell-tale muscle at the corner of Mr. Beaumaris’s mouth quivered, and was sternly repressed. “Well, perhaps not precisely commonplace,” he said. “It so happens that I have not previously eloped with anyone. However, to a man of ordinary ingenuity the affair should not prove impossible to achieve creditably, I trust. I perceive Mrs. Penkridge, who is hoping to catch either your eye or mine. We shall permit her to do so, and while she asks you to say if you do not think Nolleken’s bust over there most like, I shall go in search of Lady Bridlington, and engage her to bring you to Vauxhall tomorrow evening.”
“Oh, pray do not! I dislike Mrs. Penkridge excessively!” she whispered.
“Yes, an odious woman, but impossible to avoid,” he returned.
Seeing him rise to his feet, Mrs. Penkridge bore down upon him, her acidulated smile on her lips. Mr. Beaumaris greeted her with his smooth civility, stayed for perhaps a minute, and then, to Arabella’s indignation, made his bow, and went off in the direction of the next room.
Either Lady Bridlington proved hard to find, or he must have fallen a victim to her garrulity, Arabella thought, for it seemed a very long time before she set eyes on him again. When he did reappear, Lady Bridlington was walking beside him, wreathed in smiles. Arabella made her excuses to Mrs. Penkridge, and went across to her godmother, who greeted her with the cheerful intelligence that Mr. Beaumaris had formed the most delightful scheme for an evening at Vauxhall. “I did not scruple to accept, my love, for I knew you would like it of all things!” she said.
“Yes,” said Arabella, feeling that she was now committed to an irrevocable and reprehensible course which she would no doubt regret her life long. “I mean, oh, yes! how very agreeable!”