She took care not to glance in that direction again, but Peregrine, chancing to look round the house, exclaimed suddenly: “Who is that fellow who keeps staring into our box? I have a very good mind to step round and ask him what he means by it!”
“I do not think I should notice his impertinence, if I were you,” replied the Captain. “It is only Cripplegate, and the Barrymores, you know, cannot be held accountable for their odd manners. If you had known Hellgate, the late Earl, you would think nothing of this man.”
Peregrine was frowning across the house. “Yes, but he seems actually to be trying to catch our attention. Ju, you do not know him, do you?”
She looked fleetingly towards the opposite door. The Earl kissed his hand to her, and Captain Audley turned to her with a surprise question in his eyes. “My dear Miss Taverner, are you acquainted with Barrymore?”
She said in a good deal of confusion: “No, no! I have never spoken to him in my life.”
“Well, I think perhaps I will go round and inform him of it,” said the Captain, rising from his chair.
She laid her hand on his sleeve, and said with strong agitation: “It is of no consequence! I am persuaded he mistakes me for another. See, he has found his error for himself, and is no longer looking this way! Pray sit down again, Captain Audley!”
Civility obliged him to comply, though he looked to be far from satisfied. But the third act commenced almost immediately, and as the Earl went away before the farce no further annoyance was suffered that evening.
But the effects of his having recognized in Miss Taverner the curricle-driver at Horley were soon felt. Knowledge of her identity did not prevent him from describing the circumstances under which he had first met her, and by the time she entered the Assembly-rooms at the Old Ship with Mrs. Scattergood on the following evening her name was being bandied about pretty freely, and two ladies who had hitherto treated her with marked amiability bowed with such cold civility that she felt almost ready to sink.
The rooms were full, and a large part of the gathering was composed of officers, with whom, from the circumstance of a Cavalry barracks being situated a little way out of the town on the Lewes road, Brighton always teemed. The Master of Ceremonies presented several of the younger ones to Miss Taverner, but she stood up for the first two dances with Captain Audley.