“Did you see Beaumaris paving court to that dashed pretty girl?” asked Lord Wainfleet of his wife, as they drove away from Lady Bridlington’s house.
“Of course I did!” replied his wife.
“Seemed very taken with her, didn’t he? Not in his usual style, was she? I wonder if lie means anything?”
“Robert?” said his wife, with something very like a snort. “If you knew him as well as I do, Wainfleet, you would have seen at one glance that he was amusing himself! I know how he looks in just that humour! Someone ought to warn the child to have nothing to do with him! It is too bad of him, for she is nothing but a baby, I’ll swear!”
“They’re saying in the clubs that she’s as rich as a Nabob.”
“So I have heard, but what that has to say to anything I don’t know! Robert is quite odiously wealthy, and if ever he marries, which I begin to doubt, it will not be for a fortune, I can assure you!”
“No, I don’t suppose it will,” agreed his lordship. “Why did we go there tonight, Louisa? Devilish flat, that kind of an affair.”
“Oh, shocking! Robert asked me to go. I own I was curious to see his heiress. He said he was going to make her the most sought-after female in London.”
“Sounds like a hum to me,” said his lordship. “Why should he do so?”
“Exactly what I asked him! He said it might be amusing. There are times, Wainfleet, when I would like to box Robert’s ears!” ‘