‘Lord Chester in love? What nonsense is this, Julia? A young nobleman of his rank—almost my rank—in love! Are you mad, Julia? Are you softening in the brain? Are you aware that the boy has been properly brought up? Will you be good enough to remember that Lady Boltons is beyond all suspicion, and that he could never have seen Lady Carlyon alone since he was a boy?’
‘I answer your questions by one or two others,’ replied her friend calmly. ‘Are you, Duchess, aware that these two young people have had constant opportunities of being alone everywhere—coming from church, going to church, in conservatories, at morning parties, at dances, in gardens? Lady Boltons is all discretion; but still—but still—girls will be girls—boys love to flirt. My dear Duchess, we are still young enough to remember——’
The Duchess smiled: the Duchess laughed. Good humour returned.
‘What else, Julia? You are a retailer of horrid gossip.’
‘This besides. On the very morning when he waited on the Chancellor, he rode to Lady Carlyon’s——’
‘I know the exact particulars,’ said the Duchess. ‘Lady Boltons wrote to me on the subject to prevent misunderstanding. Professor Ingleby, his old tutor, was there. He rode there alone because his guardian could not go with him. Of course he was properly attended. Lady Carlyon is his second cousin. Properly speaking, perhaps he should have remained at home until the Professor came to him. But a man of Lord Chester’s rank may do things which smaller men cannot. And, besides, this impulsiveness—this apparent impatience of conventional restraint—seems to me only to prove the pride and dignity of his character. Is that all, Julia? Have you any more hearsays?’
They were brave words; but the Duchess felt uneasy.
‘I have; there is more behind, and worse. Still, in your present mood, I do not know that I ought to say what I should wish to say.’
‘Say on, Julia. You know that I wish to hear all. Perhaps there may be something after all. Hide nothing from me.’
‘Very good. They say that Lord Chester is, of all men, the least submissive, the least docile, the least manly—in the highest sense of the word. He habitually assumes authority which belongs to Us; he flies into violent rages; he horsewhips stable-boys; he presumptuously defies orders; he almost openly derides the laws which regulate man’s obedience. He questions—he actually questions—the fundamental principles on which society and government are based.’