The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 123: what you’re looking at

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Da aa ee THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. 109 ey CHAPTER XXIV. TIE WATER TANK. RETURN we now to Thornbury Park, the Duke of Ardleigh’s beautiful country-seat situated in Buckinghamshire. It was between nine and ten o’clock in the evening ; and the Duchess was seated alone in a small but elegantly furnished apartment, her look | indicating a certain degree of anxiety and suspense | as if she were waiting for somebody. She was in an evening toilet; and as usual, she looked strik- ingly beautiful—while if an observer had been present, he would have been even more than ordinarily interested in her appearance from the circumstance that the colbur was coming and going in quick transitions upon her cheeks. A lamp burnt upon the table: the casement was open—but the Venetian blinds were closed; and the atmosphere of the month of May, warm with- out sultriness, was perfumed by the flowers which filled several China ornaments scattered about the apartment. | Presently the discreet lady’s-maid Lavinia | made her appearance; and without saying a word, | she ushered in two persons,—retiring immediately afterwards, and closing the door behind her. These individuals were none other than Mr. Timothy Gaffney and Mr. John Peppercorn. They were dressed as when we last described them, in a sporting style; and they had about them an air of vulgar rakishness,—a sort of horse- chaunting ease and thimble-rig asssurance—so that though they might seem to be upon the Turf, it would be questionable whether they occupied any position higher than of jackals and hangers-on to the leading blacklegs of that delectable sphere. Notwithstanding that they were both possessed of no ordinary degree of impudence for any occa- sion, yet their hardihood was now at its very height, from the fact of finding that their services could be utilized by no less a person than the brilliant Duchess of Ardleigh. Jack Peppercorn took off his hat from an intuitive feeling of respect towards the fair sex; but Tim Gaffney kept his beaver upon his head, where it rested airily over one ear; and he bestowed upon her Grace a nod of impudent familiarity, as much as to remind her that they were old acquaintances. Then, with the bone-handle of his stick up to his lips, he Iooked around him; and winking knowingly at his companion, said, ‘You and me, Jack, are in luck’s way—yesterday in a splendid room at Ardleigh House—this evening in this slap-up place at Thornbury Park.” “You shut up, Tim, and let the lady talk,” re- plied Mr. Peppercorn. “She did’nt tell us to come here to discourse her—did you, ma’am? I mean your Grace ?” The Duchess drew herself up with the utmost dignity for a few moments on perceiving that Gaffney kept his hat on his head: but suddenly feeling her fancy tickled by the presumptuous ap- pearance of the individual, and recollecting how ludicrously she had foiled him in reference to the letter to her bankers, she burst out into a merry laugh. Gaffney laughed likewise ; and Jack Pepper- corn followed, but in a somewhat humbler key; and then the latter gave his friend a dig in the ribs, at the same time whispering to him to unbonnet. ‘So you understood the note which I tossed across the library table to you yesterday 2?” said the Duchess. “Well, my lady,” answered Gaffney, taking off his hat, ‘if we couldn’t understand the sweetest bit of writing that ever fell into our hands, we should be the biggest muffs in all England.” ‘‘ And now begin by telling me,” continued the Duchess, “‘ how on earth you came to know the Duke, and what you were really doing with him yesterday at Ardleigh House ?” “If so be your Grace don’t mean to tell his lordship again, and so get us into a scrape—be- cause there’s no telling how his lordship may some day or another have business for us ” “Just in the same way that I do not wish his Grace to know anything of my proceedings,” inter- rupted the Duchess, “I do not mean to display any knowledge of his. It is mere curiosity which I now propose to gratify ; and I will afterwards explain why I bade you come ‘hither on the pre- sent occasion.” Convinced that this assurante was genuine, Tim Gaffney proceeded to relate all the adventures in which he and his companion had been concerned at Southdale, so far as they regarded the Duke and Ethel ; and thus the Duchess learnt those par- ticulars which her husband had hitherto veiled from her. ‘“‘And now, my lady,” added Tim Gaffney, “TI should have asked in return how the deuce it was you managed to escape from the mill down in Kent yonder, only our friend Bax came up to London to-day, and he told us all about it. Well, I can’t help admiring your Grace, although you did take me in most deucedly. But it was un- common clever—uncommon !” and Mr. Gaffney shook his head slowly in wondering admiration cf the brilliant lady in whose presence he stood. ‘‘And yesterday’s business, too, was rayther good, I think,” said Jack Peppercorn, with a low chuckling laugh. “To be sure!” exclaimed Tim. ‘Only fancy, Jack, you and me highly respectable horse- dealers! And Mr. Bax, another of the same kidney! And the best of it was the Duke took it all for gospel and ‘thought there was no gam- mon in it!” The Duchess laughed, and then said, ‘‘ Perhaps, Mr. Gaffney, you bear me a little ill-will on ac- count of the affair at the banker’s; but if I now offer you that very same sum of five hundred guineas for a certain service which I require at your hands——” ‘“‘ Why, we shall say that you're the best and kindest as well as the handsomest lady that ever was,” answered Tim Gaffney. “Then it is a bargain,” said the Duchess. “Here is the money—it is all in gold:” and she displayed it in a silk bag as she spoke. ‘‘Per- form the duty first—and afterwards you may re- turn to the little private door where you just now met my maid, and she will place this bag in your hands.” “ Agreed,” said Gaffney. ‘ We will take your Grace’s word for it. And now what’s the busi~ ness ?” “By making a little circuit of the grounds, su 4s to keep away from the house, after you issue Colin