“You are very obliging,” bowed Sir Richard. “Bluntly, Melissa, I may do as I please if I will hand you my purse?”
“That is putting it bluntly indeed,” she replied composedly. She folded up her needlework, and laid it aside. “Papa has been expecting a visit from you. He will be sorry to hear that you called while he was away from home. He will be with us again to-morrow, and you may be sure of finding him, if you care to call at—shall we say eleven o’clock?”
He rose. “Thank you, Melissa. I feel that my time has not been wasted, even though Lord Saar was not here to receive me.”
“I hope not, indeed,” she said, extending her hand. “Come! We have had a talk which must, I feel, prove valuable. You think me unfeeling, I dare say, but you will do me the justice to admit that I have not stooped to unworthy pretence. Our situation is peculiar, which is why I overcame my reluctance to discuss the question of our marriage with you. We have been as good as betrothed these five years, and more.”
He took her hand. “Have you considered yourself betrothed to me these five years?” he enquired.
For the first time in their interview her eyes failed to meet his. “Certainly,” she replied.
“I see,” said Sir Richard, and took his leave of her.
He put in a belated appearance at Almack’s that evening. No one, admiring his point-de-vice appearance, or listening to his lazy drawl, could have supposed him to be on the eve of making the most momentous decision of his life. Only his uncle, rolling into the club some time after midnight, and observing the dead men at his elbow, guessed that the die had been cast. He told George Trevor, whom he found just rising from the basset-table, that Ricky was taking it hard, a pronouncement which distressed George, and made him say: “I have not exchanged two words with him. Do you tell me he has actually offered for Melissa Brandon?”
“I’m not telling you anything,” said Lucius. “All I say is that he’s drinking hard and plunging deep.”
In great concern, George seized the first opportunity that offered of engaging his brother-in-law’s attention. This was not until close on three o’clock, when Sir Richard at last rose from the pharaoh-table, and Sir Richard was not, by that time, in the mood for private conversation. He had lost quite a large sum of money, and had drunk quite a large quantity of brandy, but neither of these circumstances was troubling him.