“And so he may, for I have thought of an excellent scheme! Now, listen carefully, Dolph! When we go back to the carriage, I shall ask you where is Keppel Street. I think perhaps you should say you don’t know—hoaxing Finglass, you see.”
“I should like to do that,” said his lordship, showing faint animation.
“Of course you would! Then you will ask Finglass if he knows. And I shall say that I have a friend living there—what is the number of Miss Plymstock’s house, Dolph?”
“Seventeen,” he answered, watching her with rapt attention.
“Good! I will remember. I shall ask if you would object to it if I paid her a visit.”
Lord Dolphinton, much stirred, had a flash of genius. “I’ll say I don’t object, and we’ll go there!”
“Exactly so! Can you keep that in your head, do you think?”
He requested her to repeat it all; and when she had done so said that he could remember it very well. She did not feel hopeful, but it soon appeared that he had not been making an idle boast when he had told his cousins that he could remember things that were said to him two or three times. All passed precisely as had been planned, and it was not long before Miss Charing was seated in a drawing-room in Keppel Street, waiting for the man-servant to bring Miss Plymstock to her. While she waited, she took stock of her surroundings. The house was respectable; the room in which she sat was furnished with propriety, if not with elegance; and she could perceive no signs of vulgarity, such as would render an alliance with Miss Plymstock quite ineligible. Then the door opened, and Miss Plymstock stood before her.
Miss Charing suffered a severe shock, and as she put out her hand realized that Dolphinton must have formed a greater passion than she had supposed to be at all possible. Only a man in love could have described Miss Plymstock as pretty. She was a rather stout young woman of about his own age, with sandy hair and lashes, and a florid complexion. While there was nothing repulsive in her appearance, few persons would have gone so far as to have said that she was even passably good-looking. Upon Dolphinton’s performing the introduction, which he did as soon as he had been prodded by Kitty, she shook Kitty’s hand heartily, and said in a blunt but by no means ungenteel voice: “How do you do? I’m very happy to make your acquaintance, for I know of you from Foster here, and I can tell he likes you.”
She then kissed his lordship’s cheek, and patted him in a motherly way, told him to sit down and be comfortable, and turned again to Kitty. “He has told you about us, I don’t doubt, and I can see you’ve not come here to tell me our marriage would be unsuitable. Well, I’m sure there’s no need for anyone to do so, for I’m no fool, and I know it. But I mean to marry him, for all that, only how to bring it about is more than I can see.”