Roger, too proud to admit that he could not take care of himself, declined to treat himself as an invalid, and insisted on claiming his guardian’s promise to show him a little life in the great city.
It was surprising how many acquaintances Rosalind’s father had in London. Some were pleasant enough—military men on leave, and here and there a civilian’s family who remembered the captain and his charming family in the Hills.
Roger accepted their hospitality and listened to their Indian small-talk with great good-humour, and when now and then some sympathetic soul, guessing, as a good many did, one of the lad’s secrets, talked admiringly of Rosalind, he felt himself rewarded for a good deal of long-suffering. Had he heard some of the jokes passed behind his back, his satisfaction might have been considerably tempered.
“I always said,” observed one shrewd dowager, “that Oliphant would make a catch with that daughter of his. He has done it, evidently. This boy will be worth five or ten thousand a year, I hear.”
“Poor fellow! He looks as if it will be a battle with him to reach it. What a cough!”
“I can’t understand Oliphant not taking better care of him. He drags him about all over town, as if the boy were cast iron. I met them out twice this week.”
“Certainly one cannot afford to play fast and loose with the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
The “goose” in question made other acquaintances than these. In his bachelor days Captain Oliphant had “knocked about” in London pretty considerably, and had a notion, now that he was a bachelor again, to repeat the process. Roger—a raw country boy, as the reader by this time will admit—found himself entered upon a gay round of club and Bohemian life, which to an old stager like the captain may have seemed a little slow, but to a susceptible youth was decidedly attractive. The guardian’s fast acquaintances made the young heir of Maxfield welcome, and might have proceeded to pluck him had his protector permitted. Roger speedily discovered what hundreds of locks there are which the mere rumour of money will unlock. He had never had such an idea of his own importance before, and for a short time he deluded himself into the belief that his popularity was due wholly and solely to his personal merits.
Captain Oliphant fostered this delusion carefully.
“I hope you are enjoying yourself, my dear boy,” he would say, after a particularly festive evening.