“I should like to see it,” said Belinda wistfully. “And of course, if you are truly a Duke, sir, no wonder you do not wish to marry me, if you cannot find Mr. Mudgley! It would not do at all, for whoever heard of a Duke marrying a foundling? It would be the most shocking thing!”
He said gently “I am sure it would be a very lucky Duke who did so, Belinda, but, you see, I am already betrothed to Lady Harriet.”
She was quite diverted by this, and after exclaiming at it, and looking speculatively from him to Harriet, politely wished them both very happy. The information seemed in some way to reconcile her to her immediate fate, and she went away presently with Harriet perfectly complacently. She much enjoyed the experience of driving in a barouche, and a tactful suggestion from her hostess that they might go shopping together in the afternoon made her clasp her hands tightly together, and utter in palpitating accents: “Oh, ma’am, do you mean it? In the modish shops on Milsom Street? I should like it above anything great!”
“Then of course we will go,” Harriet said, her kind heart touched.
This promise had the effect of casting Belinda into a beatific dream. Visions of silken raiment floated before her eyes, and brought into her flower-like countenance so angelic an expression that several passers-by stared at her in patent admiration, and Lord Gaywood, sauntering down the steps of Lady Ampleforth’s house just as the barouche drew up there, stood rooted to the spot, his jaw dropping, and his eyes fairly starting from his head.
In her desire to be of assistance to the Duke, Harriet had not paused to consider what would be the effect upon her susceptible brother of Belinda’s charms, but when she saw him apparently stunned by them she felt a little dismay stir in her breast. She said, as she alighted from the carriage: “Charlie, this is a friend of mine, who is coming to stay with me for a few days. My dear, it is my brother, Lord Gaywood.”
Lord Gaywood recovered himself sufficiently to make his bow. Belinda said, with a happy smile: “Only fancy! Now I have met a Duke and a lord! I daresay they would never believe it at the Foundling Hospital, for I am sure such a thing never happened to any of the others!”
His lordship was considerably taken aback by this artless speech, but he was not one to worry over trifles, and he responded gallantly: “I am excessively glad to make your acquaintance, Miss—er—Miss—?” He rolled a fiercely enquiring eye at his sister, and was astonished to perceive that her face had become suffused with blushes.
“Oh, I am not Miss anything!” said Belinda, not in the least discomposed. “I am Belinda. I haven’t any parents, you know, so I have no name.”
Lord Gaywood swallowed once or twice, but soon pulled himself together. “Belinda is the prettiest name I ever heard!” he declared. “Allow me to offer you my arm up the steps!” He added out of one corner of his mouth: “Does the old lady know of this?”