Sylvester Read Free Page B

spend a large part of my life. There is Lady Jane Saxby: she’s pretty, and good-natured. Then there’s Barningham’s daughter: she has a great deal of vivacity. Miss Bellerby is a handsome girl, with a little reserve, which I don’t dislike. Lady Mary Torrington—oh, a diamond of the first water! And lastly Miss Orton: not beautiful, but quite taking, and has agreeable manners.’ He paused, his gaze still fixed on the smouldering logs. The Duchess waited expectantly. He looked up presently, and smiled at her. ‘Well, Mama?’ he said affably. ‘Which of them shall it be?’
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    After an astonished moment the Duchess said: ‘Dearest, are you roasting me? You can’t in all seriousness be asking me to choose for you!’
    ‘No, not choose precisely. I wish you will advise me, though. You’re not acquainted with any of them, but you know their families, and if you should have a decided preference—’
    ‘But, Sylvester, have you no preference?’
    ‘No, that’s the devil of it: I haven’t. Whenever I think one more eligible than any of the others as sure as check I find she has some fault or trick which I don’t like. Lady Jane’s laugh, for instance; or Miss Orton’s infernal harp! I’ve no turn for music, and to be obliged to endure a harp’s being eternally twanged in my own house—no, I think that’s coming it a trifle too strong, don’t you, Mama? Then Lady Mary—’
    ‘Thank you, I have heard enough to be able to give you my advice!’ interrupted his mother. ‘Don’t make an offer for any one of them! You are not in love!’
    ‘In love! No, of course I am not. Is that so necessary?’
    ‘Most necessary, my dear! Don’t, I beg you, offer marriage where you can’t offer love as well!’
    He smiled at her. ‘You are too romantic, Mama.’
    ‘Am I? But you seem to have no romance in you at all!’
    ‘Well, I don’t look for it in marriage, at any rate.’
    ‘Only in the muslin company?’
    He laughed. ‘You shock me, Mama! That’s a different matter. I shouldn’t call it romance either—or only one’s first adventure, perhaps. And even when I was a greenhead, and fell in love with the most dazzling little bird of Paradise you ever saw, I don’t think I really fancied myself to have formed a lasting passion! I daresay I’m too volatile, in which case—’
    ‘No such thing! You have not yet been fortunate enough to meet the girl for whom you will form a lasting passion.’
    ‘Very true: I haven’t! And since I’ve been on the town for nearly ten years, and may be said to have had my pick of all the eligible debutantes that appear yearly on the Marriage Mart, we must conclude that if I’m not too volatile I must be too nice in my requirements. To be frank with you, Mama, you are the only lady of my acquaintance with whom I don’t soon become heartily bored!’
    A tiny frown appeared between her winged brows as she listened to this speech. It was spoken in a bantering tone, but she found it disturbing. ‘Your pick of them, Sylvester?’
    ‘Yes, I think so. I must have seen all the eligibles, I fancy.’
    ‘And have made quite a number of them the objects of your gallantry—if the things I hear are to be believed!’
    ‘My aunt Louisa,’ said Sylvester unerringly. ‘What an incorrigible gossip your sister is, my dear! Well, if I have now and then shown a preference at least she can’t accuse me of having been so particular in my attentions as to have raised false hopes in any maiden’s bosom!’
    The hint of laughter had quite vanished from her eyes. The image she cherished of this beloved son was all at once blurred; and a feeling of disquiet made it difficult for her to know what she should say to him. As she hesitated, an interruption occurred. The door was opened; a pretty, plaintive voice said: ‘May I come in, Mama-Duchess?’ and there appeared on the threshold a vision of beauty dressed in a blue velvet pelisse, and a hat with a high poke-front which made a frame