“You always,” said the Countess in alarmed astonishment; “you hardly spoke to him yesterday, and—had you met him before?”
“I—I meant the Baron, mamma.”
“But I have just been saying that he was unusually clever.”
“But I thought, I mean it seemed as though you considered him only well informed.”
Lady Alicia’s blushes and confusion deepened. Her mother looked at her with a softening eye. Suddenly she rose, kissed her affectionately, and said with the tenderness of triumph, “My dear girl! Of course he is; clever, well informed, and a most desirable young man. My Alicia could not do——”
She stopped, as if she thought this was perhaps a little premature (though the Countess’s methods inclined to the summary and decisive), and again kissing her daughter [pg 142] affectionately, remarked gaily, “Let me see, why, it’s almost time we went for our little walk! We mustn’t really disappoint those young men. I am in the middle of such an amusing discussion with Mr Bunker, who is really a very sensible man and quite worthy of the Baron’s judgment.”
Poor Lady Alicia hardly knew whether to feel more relieved at her escape or dismayed at the construction put upon her explanation. She went out to meet the Baron, determined to give no further colour to her mother’s unlucky misconception. The Countess was far too experienced and determined a general to leave it at all doubtful who should walk by whose side, and who should have the opportunity of appreciating whose merits, but Lady Alicia was quite resolved that the Baron’s blandishments should fall on stony ground.
But a soft heart and an undecided mouth are treacherous companions. The Baron was so amiable and so gallant, that at the end of half an hour she was obliged to abate the strictness of her resolution. She should treat him with the friendliness of a brother. She learned that he had no sisters: her decision was confirmed.
The enamoured and delighted Baron was in the seventh heaven of happy loquacity. He poured out particulars of his travels, his more recordable adventures, his opinions on various social and political matters, and at last even of the family ghost, the hereditary carpet-beatership, and the glories of Bavaria. And Lady Alicia listened with what he could not doubt was an interest touched with tenderness.
“I wonder,” she said, artlessly, “that you find anything to admire in England—compared with Bavaria, I mean.”