The Foundling Read Free Page B

well-meaning if unfortunate remark had the effect of arousing Lady Lionel from her customary lethargy, and she began to enumerate, with a surprising degree of animation, all the more shocking headaches her nephew had endured during his sickly boyhood. The Duke bore this patiently, but Lord Lionel pshawed and fidgeted, and finally broke in on a discourse that threatened to be never-ending, saying crossly: "Very well, very well, ma'am, but this is all forgotten now, and we do not wish to be reminding Gilly of it! Were you hedgerow-shooting, my boy? Had you any sport?"
    "Three brace of partridges only, and some wood-pigeons, sir," responded the Duke.
    "Very well indeed," said his uncle approvingly. "I have frequently observed that for all it may not be real game, as we understand it, the wood-pigeon gives some of the hardest shots of all. What shot did you use?"
    "Seven," said the Duke.
    This made Lord Lionel shake his head a little, and point out the advantages of a four or a five. His nephew, having listened politely, said that he would grant him an accidental shot at long distance with his heavier shot, but that a well-breeched and properly bored gun would shoot Number Seven better than any other. As the Duke was a very pretty shot, Lord Lionel allowed this to pass with no more than a glancing reference to newfangled fads, and asked him if he had taken one of his Purdeys out.
    "No, a Manton," said the Duke. "I have been trying Joseph Manton's New Patent Shot."
    "I have bought my shot from Walker and Maltby any time these thirty years," declared his lordship. "But the old ways will never do for you young men! I suppose you will tell me this New Patent has some particular virtue!"
    "I think the shot is more compact, and it is certainly cleaner to handle," replied the Duke.
    "I hope, Gilly, that you did not get your feet wet?" said Lady Lionel. "You know, if you were to take a chill it will go straight to your throat, and I was thinking only the other day that I cannot recall the name of that very obliging physician who recommended electricity. You were only a child, so I daresay you might not remember, but it was very excellent, though your uncle disliked it very much."
    "Does Borrowdale not know that you are ready for dinner?" demanded Lord Lionel loudly. "It will be six o'clock before we sit down to it!"
    "There was quite a fashion for electricity at that time," pursued his wife placidly. "I am sure I know of a dozen persons who took the treatment."
    "It was what the Captain calls all the crack," said Miss Scamblesby, prefixing her remark with the titter which never failed to irritate his lordship.
    Lord Lionel was both fond and proud of his son, but he did not propose to submit to having his words quoted to him, and he immediately said that he had the greatest dislike of cant expressions. Miss Scamblesby's subsequent confusion was only relieved by the entrance of Borrowdale, who came in at that moment to announce that dinner was served. The Duke then assisted his aunt to rise from the sofa, Miss Scamblesby draped a Paisley shawl round her shoulders, Mr. Romsey handed her her fan and her reticule, and the whole party filed out into the hall, and across it to the dining-saloon.
    Here the Duke took his place at the head of the table, in an immense carved oak chair, and Lord Lionel installed himself in a similar chair at the foot. Lady Lionel sat at her nephew's right hand, and Miss Scamblesby and Mr. Romsey established themselves opposite to her, with only one footman between the pair of them.
    Lord Lionel being an advocate of what he considered a neat, plain dinner, only two courses were served at Sale Park when the family dined alone. The first of these consisted of a tureen of turtle, removed with fish, which was in its turn removed with a haunch of venison. Several side-dishes, such as pork cutlets with Rober sauce, larded fillets of beef, tenderones of veal and truffles, and a braised ham, graced the board, but since his