“Well, there y’are now! That was the very last thing I’d have said of ’em. Was it just my fancy after all? Wait now and I’ll tell you. When I was on my way here with the General first of all, I heard a man in the Club at Bombay telling a story of another man who went home at the same time he did, to marry a lady he’d got engaged to years and years before. This man was at a ball one night, and the second man came into the supper-room looking like a ghost, and poured himself out a glass of brandy neat. ‘What’s the matter?’ says the first fellow. ‘She’s old—she’s old!’ he says—‘and she was the loveliest girl in the three kingdoms.’ ‘But sure y’have seen her before to-night?’ says t’other. ‘Times and times, but always in the open, and on her horse. ’Tis a picture she is then, as she always was. But to-night, dressed up among all the girls——! And I have come eight thousand miles to marry her!’ ‘And did he marry her?’ asks one of the men that were listening. ‘Of course,’ says the fellow—‘’tis the sort he is,’ and that was all. I was not saying anything, naturally, but I made some enquiries afterwards in a careless sort of way, and found the man that had spoken was in Ireland about the time my sister was married. Tell me now, what d’ye think?”
This time Sally’s smile was very pleasant—almost compassionate. “Let me tell you what I noticed,” she said. “Your sister and I were together in her room when Major Ambrose came in from office. Your sister rose to go and meet him, but remembered me and sat down again, though I begged her not to make a stranger of me. Then he came and looked round the curtain. ‘Er—I wanted just to know where you were, my dear,’ he said. Now where should she be but there? It was not necessary for him to come. He came because he wished to see her.”
“And you gather from that——?”
“Pray what would you gather?”
“It sounds all right, don’t it? Well, that’s consoling, indeed. But will you tell me, was it all right the whole time or not? Was I just imagining things?”
“How can I tell? And”—demurely—“do you think we ought to discuss other people’s affairs in this way?”
“But sure it’s my own sister, and for my own consolation. She was a pretty good age, of course—bound to be after all those years. It’s t’other way about with me, don’t you know? The girl I’ll marry will be nothing but a babe in arms compared with me.” From some idea of the reverence due to youth, Brian was wont to conduct his wooing in this impersonal style, which was seen through by the lady with the greatest ease.
“Never mind!” she said kindly. “I am sure she will cherish the utmost regard for you.”
“But I’ll be double her age! I’ll be a he-hag!”
“It sounds rather like an ass,” murmured Sally. “Donkey” was a slang word then—as “moke” is now, and impossible on the lips of Lady Lennox’s step-daughter.