“Not Rome,” objected Ludovic. “Too many English there.”
“Oh! Then you will choose for us some place where there are not any English people, and Tristram who is a—is a trustee will arrange that you can have some money there.”
“Tristram is more likely to send you to Bath and kick me out of the country,” said Ludovic. “What’s more, I don’t blame him.”
But Sir Tristram, when the news of the betrothal was broken to him, did not evince any desire to resort to such violent methods. He did not even show much surprise, and when Ludovic, half defiant, half contrite, said: “I ought never to have done it, I know,” he merely replied: “I don’t suppose you did do it.”
Eustacie, taking this as a compliment, said cordially: “You are quite right, mon cousin; it was I who did it, which was not perhaps comme il faut, but entirely necessary, on account of Ludovic’s honour. And if we do not find that ring we shall go away to Italy, and you will arrange for Ludovic to have his money there, will you not?”
“I expect so,” said Shield. “But if you are determined to marry Ludovic I think we had better find the ring.”
Miss Thane, who had come into the parlour in the middle of this speech, thought it proper to assume an expression of astonishment and to say incredulously: “Do I understand, Sir Tristram, that this betrothal has your blessing?”
He turned. “Oh, you are there, are you? No, it has not my blessing, though I have no doubt it has yours?”
“Of course it has,” said Miss Thane. “I think it is delightful. Have you discovered when the Beau means to go to London?”
But this he had been unable to do, the Beau having apparently decided to postpone the date. Shield had come to inform Ludovic of it, and to warn him that this change of plan might well mean the Beau’s suspicions had been aroused. When he heard from Nye that Gregg had visited the inn on the previous day for the ostensible purpose of purchasing a keg of brandy for his master, he felt more uneasy than ever, and said that if only Ludovic had not entered upon an ill-timed engagement he would have had no hesitation in forcibly removing him to Holland.