Chapter 1
The company, ushered by a disapproving butler into the yellow saloon of Sir Richard Wyndham’s house in St James’s Square, comprised two ladies and one reluctant gentleman. The gentleman, who was not much above thirty years of age, but sadly inclined to fat, seemed to feel the butler’s disapproval, for upon that dignified individual’s informing the elder of the two ladies that Sir Richard was not at home, he cast a deprecating glance at him, not in the least the glance of a peer of the realm upon a menial, but an age-old look of one helpless man to another, and said in a pleading tone: “Well, then, don’t you think, Lady Wyndham—? Louisa, hadn’t we better—? I mean, no use going in, my love, is there?”
Neither his wife nor his mother-in-law paid any attention to this craven speech. “If my brother is gone out, we will await his return,” said Louisa briskly.
“Your poor Papa was always out when one wanted him,” complained Lady Wyndham. “It is very affecting to me to see Richard growing every day more like him.”
Her fading accents were so lachrymose that it seemed probable that she would dissolve into tears upon her son’s doorstep. George, Lord Trevor, was uneasily aware of a handkerchief, clutched in one thin, gloved hand, and put forward no further objection to entering the house in the wake of the two ladies.
Declining all offers of refreshment, Lady Trevor escorted her parent into the Yellow Saloon, settled her comfortably upon a satin sofa, and announced her intention of remaining in St James’s Square all day, if need be. George, with a very clear idea, born of sympathy, of what would be his brother-in-law’s emotions upon returning to his residence to find a family deputation in possession of it, said unhappily: “You know, I don’t think we should, really I don’t! I don’t like it above half. I wish you would drop this notion you’ve taken into your heads.”
His wife, who was engaged in stripping off her lavender-kid gloves, threw him a look of indulgent contempt. “My dear George, if you are afraid of Richard, let me assure you that I am not.”
“Afraid of him! No, indeed! But I wish you will consider that a man of nine-and-twenty won’t relish having his affairs meddled with. Besides, he will very likely wonder what the deuce it has to do with me, and I’m sure I can’t tell him! I wish I had not come.”
Louisa ignored this remark, considering it unworthy of being replied to, which indeed it was, since she ruled her lord with a rod of iron. She was a handsome woman, with a great deal of decision in her face, and a leavening gleam of humour. She was dressed, not perhaps in the height of fashion, which decreed that summer gauzes must reveal every charm of a lady’s body, but with great elegance and propriety. Since she had a very good figure, the prevailing mode for high-waisted dresses, with low-cut bodices, and tiny puff-sleeves, became her very well: much better, in fact, than skin-tight pantaloons, and a long-tailed coat became her husband.
Fashion was not kind to George. He looked his best in buckskin breeches and top-boots, but he was unfortunately addicted to dandyism, and pained his friends and relatives by adopting every extravagance of dress, spending as much time over the arrangement of his cravat as Mr Brummell himself, and squeezing his girth into tight stays which had a way of creaking whenever he moved unwarily.