The Nonesuch Read Free Page A

take care of himself! A very odd idea of me you must have, my dear Waldo, if you think he is obliged to ask my permission for anything he may wish to do!’
    The smile touched his lips; he murmured: ‘No! the only idea I have of you, ma’am, is that you are a woman of great good sense.’
    As he turned away from her, Julian, whose attention had been diverted by a question addressed to him by Mr Wingham, demanded gaily: ‘Are you talking secrets? When do you mean to go to Yorkshire?’
    ‘I haven’t decided the precise date, but sometime next week. I shall be travelling post, of course.’
    The expression of disappointment on Julian’s face was ludicrous enough to make even his ruffled mother smile. He exclaimed impulsively: ‘Oh, no !You can’t wish to be shut up in a stuffy chaise for – Oh, you’re trying to gammon me, are you? Waldo, you’re a – you’re a –’
    ‘Gull-catcher,’ supplied George, on the broad grin.
    Julian accepted this blithely. ‘Yes, and aregular dryboots! Curricle, Waldo, or phaeton?’
    ‘I don’t see how we can go by either when I’ve no horses stabled on the Great North Road,’ objected Waldo.
    But Julian was not to be hoaxed twice. He retorted that if his cousin was such a nip-farthing as to grudge the expense of sending his cattle forward they would either hire job-horses, or proceed by such easy stages as could be managed by one team.
    ‘I like young Lindeth,’ said George, when, presently, he walked with his cousin in the direction of Bond Street. ‘A very good sort of a boy: nothing of the rum ’un about him !But as for Laurence – ! Upon my word, Waldo, I wonder that you should bear with him as you do! Well, I was used to think him more flash than foolish, but after listening to his damned insolence today I think him the most buffleheaded clunch I ever saw in my life! If there’s one person anybody but a sapskull would have taken precious care not to rub against, it’s you! Good God, where does he think he’d be, if you was to abandon him? Don’t you tell me he hasn’t cost you a small fortune, because I’m not a gapeseed! Why you didn’t lose your temper and tell him he’d had his last groat from you I shall never know!’
    ‘Yes, you will,’ responded Sir Waldo calmly. ‘I didn’t lose my temper because that is precisely what I had told him.’
    George was so much surprised that he halted in his tracks. ‘You had? Waldo, you don’t mean it!’
    ‘No, probably not, but today’s outburst shows that Laurie thinks I do. So now you know why I hadn’t the smallest inclination to lose my temper. For how much longer do you mean to stand like a stock, attracting the attention of the vulgar? Do come out of your trance, George!’
    Thus adjured, Mr Wingham fell into step again beside his tall cousin, saying earnestly: ‘I was never more glad of anything in my life! Now, don’t waver from it, I beg of you! Damme if I wouldn’t prefer to see you wasting the ready on a pack of ragged brats than on that young once-a-week man!’
    ‘Oh, George, no!’ expostulated Sir Waldo. ‘Coming it too strong!’
    ‘Oh, no, I ain’t!’ said George obstinately. ‘When I think of the things he said today, and the gratitude he owes you –’
    ‘He owes me none.’
    ‘ What? ’George gasped, once more coming to a sudden halt.
    His cousin’s hand, gripping his arm, forced him onward. ‘No, George: not again!’ said Sir Waldo firmly. ‘I’ve done very badly by Laurie. If you don’t know that, I do.’
    ‘Well, I don’t!’ George declared. ‘From the time he was at Harrow you’ve positively lavished money on him! You never did so for Julian!’
    ‘Oh, I’ve never done more for Julian than send him a guinea under the seal, when he was a schoolboy!’ said Sir Waldo, laughing.
    ‘So I knew! Of course, you may say he was pretty well-breeched, but –’
    ‘I shan’t say anything of the sort. I should have done no more for him whatever his circumstances might