Bath Tangle Read Free

natural to Lady Theresa Carlow’s consort. Having married the late Earl’s sister, he considered that he had a better right than Dorrington to assume the direction of affairs, but he knew no way of asserting it, and was obliged to content himself with moving towards a chair as far distant as possible to that one indicated by Dorrington, and by muttering animadversions against pretentious and encroaching old popinjays, which were as soothing to himself as they were inaudible to everyone else.
    The first in consequence was the last to enter the room, the Marquis of Rotherham, saying: ‘Oh, go on, man, go on!’ thrusting the attorney before him, and strolling into the library behind him.
    His entrance might have been said to have banished constraint. The Lady Serena, never remarkable for propriety, stared incredulously, and exclaimed: ‘What in the world brings you here, I should like to know?’
    ‘So should I!’ retorted his lordship. ‘How well we should have suited, Serena! So many ideas as we have in common!’
    Fanny, well accustomed to such exchanges, merely cast an imploring look at Serena; Mr Eaglesham uttered a short laugh; Sir William Claypole was plainly startled; Mr Perrott, who had drawn up the original marriage settlements, seemed to be suddenly afflicted with deafness; and Lord Dorrington, perceiving an opportunity for further meddling, said, in what was meant to be an authoritative tone: ‘Now, now! We must not forget upon what a sad occasion we are gathered together! No doubt there is a little awkwardness attached to Rotherham’s unavoidable presence here. Indeed, when I learned from our good Perrott –’
    ‘ Awkwardness? ’ cried Serena, her colour heightened, and her eyes flashing. ‘I promise you, I feel none, my dear sir! If Rotherham is conscious of it, I can only say that I am astonished he should choose to intrude upon a matter which can only concern the family!’
    ‘No, I am not conscious of it,’ responded the Marquis. ‘Only of intolerable boredom!’
    Several pairs of eyes turned apprehensively towards Serena, but she was never a fighter who resented a knock in exchange. This one seemed rather to assuage than to exacerbate her wrath. She smiled reluctantly, and said in a milder tone: ‘Well! But what made you come, then?’
    Mr Perrott, who had been engaged in spreading some documents over the desk, gave a little, dry cough, and said: ‘Your ladyship must know that the late Earl appointed my Lord Rotherham to be one of the Executors of his Will.’
    That this intelligence was as unexpected as it was unwelcome was made plain by the widening of Serena’s eyes, as she turned them, in a look compound of doubt and disgust, from Rotherham to the attorney. ‘I might have guessed that that was how it would be!’ she said, turning aside in mortification, and walking back to her seat in the window embrasure.
    ‘Then it is a great pity you did not guess!’ said Rotherham acidly. ‘I might then have been warned in time to have declined the office, for which I daresay there could be no one more unsuited!’
    She deigned no reply, but averted her face, fixing her gaze once more upon the prospect outside. Her cousin, wearing his new dignities uneasily, was inspired by his evil genius to assume an air of authority, saying in a tone of reproof: ‘Such conduct as this is quite unbecoming, Serena! Now that the late unhappy event has made me head of the family I do not scruple to say so. I am sure I do not know what Lord Rotherham must be thinking of such manners.’
    He brought himself under the fire of two pairs of eyes, the one filled with wrathful astonishment, the other with cruel mockery.
    ‘Well, you can certainly be sure of that!’ said Rotherham.
    ‘For my part,’ said Dorrington, in a peevish voice, ‘I consider it very odd in my poor brother, very odd indeed! One would have supposed – however, so it has always been! Eccentric! I can find no other word for it.’
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