Lovers in London Read Free

Grandpapa, there have been so few times when I could wear it.”
    â€œI know that, Lanthia, but most of the County have seen it and I want you to look your most beautiful when we attend this ball in three weeks time.”
    She spoke in such a way that Lanthia realised that her mother had made a decision about something.
    She waited patiently to hear what it was.
    â€œI have been talking to your father,” Lady Grenville said at last, “and as it is impossible for me to do very much at the moment until my knee is better, you will have to go to London without me.”
    â€œTo London ! Whatever for?” cried Lanthia in astonishment.
    Her mother smiled.
    â€œWhen I said a new gown, I meant one that is really fashionable and up-to-date, and that of course means Bond Street.”
    â€œAre we not all going to London?” asked Lanthia looking at her father to see what he thought.
    â€œI am afraid that is quite impossible, darling. This tiresome rheumatism I am suffering from would make it impossible for me to walk from shop to shop, as we should undoubtedly have to do to find just what we need and you know your father is in the middle of his new book and, of course, will not be drawn away from it.”
    â€œOr from you,” Sir Philip came in with a smile.
    He adored his wife as she adored him.
    Lanthia knew that it would be quite impossible to talk her father into coming to London if her mother was staying at home.
    â€œWhat am I to do?” she implored her mother.
    â€œWe have just been talking it over and we know that Mrs. Blossom would be only too willing to travel to London with you as your chaperone.”
    â€œMrs. Blossom!” she repeated without very much enthusiasm.
    â€œI know, my dearest, she is rather dull, but, as I was saying to your father, all our relations seem to be in the country at the moment and your Aunt Mary told me quite specifically last time she was here that she had no intention of opening their London house in Belgrave Square until the autumn.”
    â€œThen where will I and Mrs. Blossom stay?”
    â€œYour Papa and I are quite certain that you will be well looked after and quite safe at The Langham .”
    â€œ The Langham !” cried Lanthia. “Oh, I would love that!”
    She had been to The Langham once with her father and mother when she was a young girl and thought it was a fascinating hotel.
    The Langham was one of London’s newest hotels and its owners had claimed that it was the largest building in England when the young Prince of Wales opened it in 1865. The hotel boasted no less than five hundred bedrooms, dwarfing rivals such as Claridges and The Grosvenor .
    When Sir Philip had to go to London to see about his books being published or for any other reason, he and his wife always stayed at The Langham .
    Their last visit had been two years ago, but they did not take Lanthia with them as she was so occupied with her governesses.
    Lanthia believed then, as she did now, that they had actually wanted to be on their own and she knew that The Langham held so many happy memories for them.
    She herself could remember being very impressed by the hotel and some of the stories her father had told her about people who stayed there had remained in her mind.
    She remembered now him telling her on his return home all about the romantic novelist, Louisa Ramée, who lived in The Langham .
    Lanthia knew that Louisa Ramée was known to the world by her pen name, ‘Ouida,’ which originated from her own attempts as a baby to pronounce ‘Louisa’.
    Since her father had met Ouida, he had bought her novels – she published one nearly every year. And she could remember her mother reading various passages aloud so that her father could laugh at them with her.
    Last year when her father had just bought the latest novel by Ouida, he had told Lanthia what a strange woman she was.
    â€œShe is different from anyone else I have