“Well, we must be off now, Florence.”
“All right, James, I’m ready.”
“Will you both come and dine with me to-night sans façon, there will be nobody else except Agatha and Mr. Heigham?” asked Mrs. Carr.
“We shall be delighted,” said Lord Minster.
“Au revoir, then,” nodded Lady Florence to Arthur, and they separated.
When, after lunching and seeing round the ship, Miss Terry and Arthur found themselves in the steam launch waiting for Mrs. Carr, who was saying good-by to the captain and looking after her precious box, Arthur took the opportunity to ask his companion what she knew of Lord Minster.
“Oh, not much, that is, nothing in particular, except that he is the son of a sugar-broker or something, who was made a peer for some reason or other, and I suppose that is why he is so stuck up, because all the other peers I ever met are just like other people. He is very clever, too, is in the government now, and always hanging about after Mildred. He wants to marry her, you know, and I expect that he will at last, but I hope he won’t. I don’t like him; he always looks at one as though one were dirt.”
“The deuce he does!” ejaculated Arthur, his heart filling on the instant with envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness towards Lord Minster. He had not the slightest wish to marry Mildred himself, but he boiled at the mere thought of anybody else doing so. Lady Florence was right, there is a difference between ladies and landscapes.
At that moment Mildred herself arrived, but so disgusted was he that he would scarcely speak to her, and on arriving at the landing stage he at once departed to the hotel, and even tried to get out of coming to dinner that night, but this was overruled.
“Good,” said Mildred to herself, with a smile; “I have found out how to vex him.”