The Convenient Marriage Read Free Page B

Motion, but he had no place in the Ministry, and he displayed not the smallest desire to occupy himself with Politicks. If he spoke, Mr Gisborne was requested to prepare his speech, which Mr Gisborne did with energy and enthusiasm, hearing in his imagination the words delivered in his own crisp voice. My lord would glance over the sheets of fine handwriting, and say: ‘Admirable, my dear Arnold, quite admirable. But not quite in my mode, do you think?’ And Mr Gisborne would have sadly to watch my lord’s well-kept hand driving a quill through his most cherished periods. My lord, aware of his chagrin, would look up and say with his rather charming smile: ‘I feel for you, Arnold, believe me. But I am such a very frippery fellow, you know. It would shock the Lords to hear me utter such energetic sentiments. It would not do at all.’
    ‘My lord, may I say that you like to be thought a frippery fellow?’ asked Mr Gisborne with severity tempered by respect.
    ‘By all means, Arnold. You may say just what you like,’ replied his lordship amiably.
    But in spite of this permission Mr Gisborne did not say anything more. It would have been a waste of time. My lord could give one a set-down, though always with that faint look of amusement in his bored grey eyes, and always in the pleasantest manner. Mr Gisborne contented himself with dreaming of his own future, and in the meantime managed his patron’s affairs with conscientious thoroughness. The Earl’s mode of life he could not approve, for he was the son of a Dean, and strictly reared. My lord’s preoccupation with such wanton pieces of pretty femininity as La Fanciola, of the Opera House, or a certain Lady Massey filled him with a disapproval that made him at first scornful, and later, when he had been my lord’s secretary for a twelve-month, regretful.
    He had not imagined, upon his first setting eyes on the Earl, that he could learn to like, or even to tolerate, this lazy, faintly mocking exquisite, but he had not, after all, experienced the least difficulty in doing both. At the end of a month he had discovered that just as his lordship’s laced and scented coats concealed an extremely powerful frame, so his weary eyelids drooped over eyes that could become as keen as the brain behind.
    Yielding to my lord’s charm, he accepted his vagaries if not with approval at least with tolerance.
    The Earl’s intention to enter the married state took him by surprise. He had no notion of such a scheme until a morning two days after his lordship had visited Lady Winwood in South Street. Then, as he sat at his desk in the library, Rule strolled in after a late breakfast, and perceiving the pen in his hand, complained: ‘You are always so damnably busy, Arnold. Do I give you so much work?’
    Mr Gisborne got up from his seat at the desk. ‘No, sir, not enough.’
    ‘You are insatiable, my dear boy.’ He observed some papers in Mr Gisborne’s grasp, and sighed. ‘What is it now?’ he asked with resignation.
    ‘I thought, sir, you might wish to see these accounts from Meering,’ suggested Mr Gisborne.
    ‘Not in the least,’ replied his lordship, leaning his big shoulders against the mantelpiece.
    ‘Very well, sir.’ Mr Gisborne laid the papers down, and said tentatively: ‘You won’t have forgotten that there is a Debate in the House to-day which you will like to take part in?’
    His lordship’s attention had wandered; he was scrutinizing his own top-boot (for he was dressed for riding) through a long-handled quizzing-glass, but he said in a mildly surprised voice: ‘Which I shall what, Arnold?’
    ‘I made sure you would attend it, my lord,’ said Mr Gisborne defensively.
    ‘I am afraid you were in your cups, my dear fellow. Now tell me, do my eyes deceive me, or is there a suggestion – the merest hint – of a – really, I fear I must call it a bagginess about the ankle?’
    Mr Gisborne glanced perfunctorily down at his lordship’s shining boot. ‘I