Miss Grantham laughed. “Oh, there are a dozen things we might do to be saved! Lucius was talking of going to Hanover the other day, and trying his fortune there. What do you say to our closing this house, and running off with him?”
“Now I am going to have the vapours!” said Lady Bellingham, with conviction.
“Only I won’t leave England until I have settled my score with Ravenscar,” said Miss Grantham, a sparkle in her eyes. “I wish I knew what he means to do next!”
“If it would bring you to your senses, I wish you might know!” said her aunt. “I dare say it would kill me, but you will not care for that!”
But a knowledge of Mr Ravenscar’s activities that morning would scarcely have occasioned Lady Bellingham any great discomfort of mind. Mr Ravenscar had gone to White’s Club.
He was a member of several clubs, but Brooks’s was known to be his favourite, so that some surprise was felt at his appearance at White’s. The porter told him that he had become quite a stranger to the place; and an acquaintance whom he encountered on the stairs said: “Why, Ravenscar, don’t tell me you’ve abandoned Brooks’s at last! We thought you was wholly lost to us!”
“No, not wholly,” Ravenscar replied. “Who’s upstairs?”
“Oh, the usual set!” said his friend airily. “I must tell you the odds are shortening on your race, by the way! Beverley’s seen Filey’s pair in action, and he says they are rare steppers.”
“Yes, so I hear,” Ravenscar said, unperturbed.
He passed on up the stairs to the room overlooking the street. Here he found several friends gathered, but after staying for a few minutes with them, he strolled over to the window, where Ormskirk was seated, glancing through the