"I shouldn't be surprised," said Bradstock. "Has he gone out alone to-day, do you think? I suppose you know Penelope is doing a lot of it now?"
"The devil she is!" said Bramber. "I think I'll go and look up Plant."
Bradstock got some amusement out of the situation, if Titania didn't.
CHAPTER VI.
Penelope came back to town about a week later and saw every one.
"I wonder whom I love," said Pen, "for I'm sure I love some one. And they are all so kind and sweet and good. I'm sorry I shall have to hurt so many of them, for the poor dears all adore me."
It was marvellous how they had developed in a short time under Pen's system, which was evidently sound, as Bradstock declared. Plant, under his ten-and-sixpence-a-week scheme, had lost a stone weight, and was as hard and fine as a coil of wire. His search after the people he had ruined gave him a peace of mind to which he had long been a stranger, for American millionaires in business have no peace of mind.
"I feel good," said Plant, meaning it both ways, "and my endurance of young Bramber has stiffened my moral fibre."
"Whether I marry you or not, Mr. Plant," said Penelope, "I am awfully pleased with you. And how has Lord Bramber behaved?"
"He's been death on what he called my accent," said Plant, a little bitterly, "and it is notorious I've none to speak of; and, for that matter, his own you could cut with a knife. However, I think he's a good boy, and will discover he has brains. I've talked to him straight, Lady Penelope. I told him you meant me to. I said he might be a lord and the son of an earl, but that he was a lazy, loafing scallawag, and that, if he'd been my son, I'd have cowhided him. That did him good; it made him sit up, I tell you. Oh, he fairly fizzled and felt like going for me, but he knew better. He has brains, and I've talked with members of your legislature who say he'll do well. Put this down to me, Lady Penelope. Credit me with this. I've looked after him like a baby, and I've hustled him around in my motor till he can't help going when he's out of it. You and me together, my dear young lady, could educate the entire universe. If you'll only marry me, I'll start a university on these lines of yours."