“If I were a younger man I should say many pretty things to you, notably one which I don’t doubt Cecil has said very often—that you are the sort of woman a man imagines he could cheerfully die for. I am no longer young, but I recognise the type.” He hesitated a moment. “My wife belonged to it. Now, I am going to give you some hard practical advice. If you adopt it, I believe that, taken in connection with your purpose and with what Nature has been kind enough to do for you, it will insure your success if anything can. Identify yourself with every one of Cecil’s pleasures and pursuits. By the first of October the guests will have gone, and Emmy with them; she spends the rest of the autumn and early winter in London, and in a round of visits further South. Cecil and I always stay on here for the pheasants, and I usually ask two or three men down at a time. There will be no other women here until next August. Come out with us, learn to shoot, stay out all day, and——learn to like it. I doubt, though, if you could help it. Then comes the hunting season. We always spend the month of November in Warwickshire at Beaumanoir, my brother-in-law’s place—you will remember he was here when you came. Cecil tells me that you are a fine horse-woman. You will learn to ride to hounds in no time, and Cecil is particularly keen on hunting. So much for his pleasures; and you will soon learn that you cannot know too much about sport of every sort. In December we must return here. Parliament may be prorogued for elections at any moment after February, and Cecil must begin as soon as possible to nurse his constituency. It’s been nursing for him in a way for several years, for it has always been understood that Cecil was to succeed old Saunderson, who has now had enough of it, and practically notified the Division. Nevertheless, Cecil has work of his own to do, for the Liberal element has been gaining strength here for some time. He must make speeches, open libraries, or whatever else demands the grace of his presence—and I believe several things of the sort are finishing. He must do everything he can to make himself known and liked, and to inspire confidence. And he will have to study very hard—will study, for he does nothing by halves. You must go about with him, and also visit a little among the village people. You will be a great help, for the lower classes love the compound of beauty and rank; and if it is known that you will sit on the platform while he speaks he will be doubly sure of a large audience. He may give an occasional lecture or preside at a magic-lantern show at the village schools. It is expected of us, for some six or eight villages skirting the estate were once ours. I, too, have been an oracle in my day. The bare thought bores me now, but it will amuse you and Cecil. And—here is another point—study with him. That will not be so interesting; in fact, it will bore you——”
“No, it will not. I’m immensely interested in English politics already.”
“You’ll find it something of a pull, tramping through Blue Books, Reports, Public Speeches, Statesman’s Year-Books, and all the data on the great question of the Landlord v. the Farmer. But if you have the brains and the energy to stick to it—and I believe you have—you will succeed in getting closer to Cecil than you ever would in any other way. He will be flattered at first, and pleased with the prospect of companionship; later, you will become his second self, and he could no more do without you than without one of his legs or arms. It’s a risky thing to say to a woman, but to live comfortably with an Englishman you’ve got to become his habit, and to be happy with him you’ve got to become his second self. Englishwomen are the first from tradition. When they have brains they usually bolt in the opposite direction. That is because they are deficient in passion. Let me see what you will make of the combination. I believe you will succeed. Thank Heaven, here comes the tea! I’ve never talked so much in my born days, and I’m as dry as a herring.”
They took their tea cosily in the dim beautiful room, and Lee, being a woman of tact, dropped the subject of herself, and attempted the seemingly impossible task of amusing Lord Barnstaple. She succeeded so well that he discarded his usual chuckle, and laughed heartily no less than five times.
“I foresee that you and Cecil and I shall be three jolly good comrades. Of course I shan’t see quite so much of you in London; you and Cecil will have to take a house of your own, and I’ve got to live under the same roof with Emmy, for decency’s sake. But here we can be a really comfortable family party. This year we’ll be here till April, and after that, of course, you’ll have to move up to London in January. Do you look forward to being the beauty of a London season? What a question!”
“Of course I want to be admired; and what is more, I don’t intend to let Cecil forget that I can be, when I choose. I suppose I’ll look horrid in a shooting outfit.”
“I am sure you will look charming; and, I don’t wish to be rude—Cecil will not know whether you do or not. But that’s not the point, and you can make yourself fascinating at dinner. Tea-gowns——” He waved his hand vaguely.
Lee’s eyes sparkled. “I have a delightful sensation of novelty,” she said. “I want to get right into the middle of it all. It may not be like my old dreams, but it glitters, all the same. I love doing new things.”
“Novelty is the half of many battles,” observed Lord Barnstaple dryly.
The conversation drifted again to other matters, but as he was leaving her a half-hour later, he turned at the door, and said: