“My son, remember that she has forty thousand a year in her own right. They discovered coal mines on unentailed lands in Nottinghamshire and she was the only child.”
“I hope she may enjoy it. What of the American beauty and heiress you were so keen about?”
“Do you mean Mabel Cutting?” Lady Bridgminster dipped her tones in ice.
“Of course. Are there so many?”
“I thought favourably of her at first; but really, Mrs. Cutting was too keen. It was indecent. If we must put ourselves up for sale, let us not admit the fact to these outsiders. Her silly pedantic little daughter may have more money than Rosamond, but she is not our sort.”
“Pedantic?” Ordham had lost the rest of his mother’s observations. A vision of the deliciously pretty empty-headed little chatterbox had risen before him, alluring indeed after the frightful menace of Lady Rosamond Hayle. “Are we talking of the same person?”
“Rather. When the child first came over I liked her. She was a sweet, innocent, well-bred little thing, who knew no more than a young girl should. But the change soon began. Nearly every marriageable man in London ran after her, which was natural enough. I will do several the justice to believe that they were really in love with her, irrespective of the millions. Youth and beauty and sweet manners go far, and I suppose there is romance left even in London. I did not mind her head being turned. That also was natural, with artists painting her for the Academy and all the rest of it—although it was too silly of her to insist upon having that ridiculous LaLa in every picture. Well—when after a mere three months of such a success as few girls enjoy, she suddenly announced herself bored with society, declared that she did not yet know enough to waste so much time, that men talked only nonsense to her, and therefore taught her nothing, she forced her unfortunate mother, who loves society more than any woman I ever met, to retire to the country with a staff of tutors—oh, I have no patience with such nonsense. When girls have youth and beauty, the less brains they have the more attractive they are.”
“Oh?” Ordham had risen to his feet, his eyes very bright.
“Is not that too brief period for enjoyment pure and simple? Intellect does well enough when everything else has deserted a woman. What a waste of time and energy before! It has made this little American insufferable. When I heard yesterday they were in town I went out of common civility—as well as curiosity—to call. The girl looks moonstruck. She had not a word to say. No doubt her brains are addled.”
“Then they are in town? I must call to-morrow.”