His aunt winced. “For heaven’s sake don’t shout at me! I have borne enough this day! So you did not know! He threw as much dust in your eyes as in mine!”
Mr Ravenscar seemed to experience some difficulty in speaking, but after a moment’s stunned silence he managed to say with tolerable composure: “I am utterly at a loss, ma’am, and must beg you to enlighten me! Are you sure that you have understood what Adrian told you?”
“Of course I am sure! Do you think I am in my dotage? He has married Phoebe Laxton—a child three years younger than himself, if you please! And that Grantham woman helped him to do it!” Lady Mablethorpe fanned herself in an agitated way, and added: “It is the most absurd thing ever I heard! A couple of babies to be setting up housekeeping! The girl is as good as portionless, too! Oh, I do not know what to do about it! There is nothing I can do, but to think that I should be obliged to receive Augusta Laxton with an appearance of complaisance when there is no one I dislike more! It does not bear thinking of!”
Mr Ravenscar, who was looking extremely pale, broke in on this to say: “Have the goodness, ma’am, to be a little more intelligible! This sounds to me like a farrago of nonsense! When did Adrian meet Miss Laxton? How is it possible that he can have married her?”
“He met her at Vauxhall, when he was there with that dreadful woman. It seems that she had run away from Sir James Filey, whom the Laxtons were pressing her to marry. Well, I must say I think she did right to run away from such a satyr! A hateful man, and if you had but known his mother! But that’s neither here nor there! What must Adrian do—urged on, of course, by that Grantham woman, though why she should I cannot imagine, for anyone must have guessed what would come of it, with a boy of his romantic notions! Well, what must he do but spirit the girl away to Lady Bellingham’s house, where she was kept hidden until Filey chanced to see her looking out of the window one day, and recognized her!”
“Good God!” exclaimed Ravenscar, paler than ever. “I do recall hearing some talk of the Laxton girl’s being missing! She was in St James’s Square all the time?”
“Yes, falling in love with my son!” said her ladyship, with a good deal of feeling. “Under the Grantham woman’s nose! She must be a fool, one would think! For what could be more natural than for Adrian to tumble head over ears in love with a child who was calling him her saviour, and thinking him a perfect Sir Galahad, or whoever it was who went about rescuing foolish females! Oh, I can see it all! And I must say, Max, dreadful though it all is, his marriage has improved him already! He seems to have grown up in a flash. If I had not been so angry, I could have laughed to have heard him telling me so sternly how he would have me receive his wife, and how he would not permit anyone to do or say anything that might distress her! He has gone off to call upon Lord Laxton, as cool as you please! A boy of his age! Heaven knows what the Laxtons will say, but they may consider themselves lucky to have married their daughter so well, and so I shall tell Augusta, if she dares to—oh, but, Max, he is too young to be married! I cannot bear it!”
Mr Ravenscar paid no attention to this. “But the marriage! Do you tell me Adrian took this girl to Gretna Green?”
“No, he was not so lost to all sense of propriety as that, I am thankful to say! When Filey discovered her presence in Lady Bellingham’s house, Phoebe was so terrified that she would be dragged back to her parents’ house, and forced to marry him, that there was nothing for it, Adrian said, but to take her away immediately. Laxton’s sister lives in Wales, and seems to have been a good friend to Phoebe from the outset. Adrian hired a post-chaise, bundled her and the Grantham woman into it, told me he was off to stay with Tom Waring, and set out for Wales! With a special licence in his pocket, Max! Only fancy Adrian’s thinking of everything, just as though he were not a perfect greenhorn! One cannot help feeling proud of him! They were married from this aunt’s house, and now Adrian says he means to insert a notice in the Morning Post!”
“My God, my God, what have I done?” burst from Mr Ravenscar. He sprang to his feet, and began to pace about the room as though he could not be still another instant.