“I wonder, now, do you ever walk in the Park?” asked Kennet.
“Why sometimes I do!” said Arabella. “In the morning, with my maid.” She paused, and added, with the naughtiest glean in her eye: “The most discreet creature!”
He was still holding her tiny, gloved hand in his, and he pinched one of her fingers, and said, chuckling: “Miss Ravenscar, you’re the prettiest rogue I’ve clapped eyes on this many a day! It will be a queer thing, so it will, if we do not meet in the Park, one of these fine days.”
“Oh, do you walk there too?” asked Arabella ingenuously. “Then I daresay we shall meet—one of these fine days!”
She withdrew her hand, and Mr Kennet laughed, and signaled to the coachman to drive on.
Mr Ravenscar, meanwhile, in happy ignorance of his half sister’s activities, had received another letter from St James’ Square, written in the same sloping characters as the first, but in far more agitated language. The letter hinted at unforeseen complications, held out a vague hope of capitulation, but ex pressed a desire on the part of the writer to meet him for the purpose of explaining the awkwardness of the situation. Mr Kennet, improvising freely in the guise of Miss Grantham wrote that it was imperative that Lady Bellingham should, know nothing either of this correspondence or of the propose negotiations, and desired Mr Ravenscar to be so obliging a to reply under cover to Mr Lucius Kennet, at 66 Jermyn Street.
Mr Ravenscar found himself at a loss to understand either the mysterious references in the letter, or the need for discussion of his ultimatum, and wrote, as requested, to say. This brought forth a distracted note, the gist of which left him with the impression that Lady Bellingham, and not Miss Grantham, was the prime mover in the plot, to entrap Lord Mablethorpe; and indicated a fear of her aunt on Miss Grantham’s part which would have astonished both ladies, had the been privileged to see this remarkable letter. It ended by begging Mr Ravenscar to do Miss Grantham the favour of meeting her at a rendezvous in the Park, on Wednesday afternoon at dusk, when she engaged herself to explain fully to him how matters stood, and to do what lay in her power to comply wit his wishes.
Mr Ravenscar, being almost wholly unacquainted with Lady Bellingham, saw nothing incredible in the suggestion that he niece might be acting under her compulsion. He was even conscious of a faint feeling of satisfaction, and was not entirely averse from meeting Miss Grantham again. Mr Kennet, accordingly, was gratified to receive, on the following day, a brief intimation from Mr Ravenscar that he would present himself at the rendezvous.
Silas Wantage, informed of the success of a strategem which had had his full support, grunted, and said that Mr Kennet might leave the rest to him.
“My good man, Ravenscar’s no Jessamy!” Kennet said impatiently. “He boxes with Mendoza!”