“I do not see what you can do,” objected Lady Bellingham. “As soon as he knows that Mablethorpe is safely tied to Phoebe Laxton, there will no longer be the least reason why he should give us any money at all.”
“Well,” drawled Kennet, rising to his feet, and pocketing his dice, “Mablethorpe is not the only weapon to our hands, after all. I’ll be bidding you a very good day, ma’am.”
He went off, leaving her ladyship rather bewildered, but, on the whole, unimpressed.
Mr Ravenscar, in the meantime, had received Miss Grantham’s hurried note, and had read it with some amusement. It was plain that he had taken her by surprise, which was what he had meant to do; and equally plain that she had been thrown into a considerable degree of embarrassment. He more than half suspected her of having told—him that she was going into the country merely to gain time to decide on her next course of action. He wondered what this would be, and, having by this time formed a fairly accurate estimate of the lady’s character, would not have been surprised to have had the bills flung back at him without an instant’s delay on her part.
He folded her letter, and put it away. The various exigencies of the past week had precluded his paying very much attention to his half-sister, but he had noticed a certain saintliness of demeanour about that young lady which he had learnt from experience to mistrust, and thought that it might be as well to devote a little of his time to her. With this end in view, he sent up a message to her, asking whether she cared to drive out with him in the Park.
Upon receiving this message, Miss Ravenscar came down to the library, dressed for walking, and eyed him rather doubtfully. “Why do you want to take me out driving?” she asked.
“Why shouldn’t I want to?” he replied, looking up from the letter he was reading.
“Well, I don’t know,” said Arabella cautiously. “Whenever Aunt Selina invites me to drive out with her, in that stuffy barouche, it is always because she wants to read me a lecture.”
He laughed. “Belle, when have I ever done such a thing?”
“There is no saying when you might take it into your head to do so,” she answered, dimpling.