Lord Silverbridge sat in the House,—or
to speak more accurately, in the smoking-room of the
House—for about an hour thinking over all
that had passed between him and his father. He
certainly had not intended to say anything about Lady
Mab, but on the spur of the moment it had all come
out. Now at any rate it was decided for him that
he must, in set terms, ask her to be his wife.
The scene which had just occurred had made him thoroughly
sick of Major Tifto. He must get rid of the Major,
and there could be no way of doing this at once so
easy and so little open to observation as marriage.
If he were but once engaged to Mabel Grex the dismissal
of Tifto would be quite a matter of course. He
would see Lady Mabel again on the morrow and ask her
in direct language to be his wife.
Mrs Montacute Jones’s Garden-Party
It was known to all the world that Mrs Montacute Jones’s
first great garden-party was to come off on Wednesday,
the sixteenth of June, at Roehampton. Mrs Montacute
Jones, who lived in Grosvenor Place and had a country
house in Gloucestershire, and a place for young men
to shoot at in Scotland, also kept a suburban elysium
in Roehampton, in order that she might give two garden-parties
every year. When it is said that all these costly
luxuries appertained to Mrs Montacute Jones, it is
to be understood that they did in truth belong to
Mr Jones, of whom nobody heard much. But of Mrs
Jones,—that is, Mrs Montacute Jones,—everybody
heard a great deal. She was an old lady who devoted
her life to the amusement of—not only her
friends, but very many who were not her friends.
No doubt she was fond of Lords and Countesses, and
worked very hard to get round her all the rank and
fashion of the day. It must be acknowledged that
she was a worldly old woman. But no more good-natured
old woman lived in London, and everybody liked to be
asked to her garden-parties. On this occasion
there was to be a considerable infusion of royal blood,—German,
Belgian, French, Spanish, and of native growth.
Everybody, who was asked would go, and everybody had
been asked,—who was anybody. Lord Silverbridge
had been asked, and Lord Silverbridge intended to be
there. Lady Mary his sister, could even be asked,
because her mother was hardly more than three months
dead; but it is understood in the world that women
mourn longer than men.
Silverbridge had mounted a private hansom cab in which
he could be taken about rapidly,—and, as
he said himself, without being shut up in a coffin.
In this vehicle he had himself taken to Roehampton,
purporting to kill two birds with one stone. He
had not as yet seen his sister since she had been
with Lady Cantrip. He would on this day come
back by the Horns.
He was well aware that Lady Mab would be at the garden-party.
What place could be better for putting the question
he had to ask! He was by no means so confident
as the heir to so many good things might perhaps have
been without overdue self-confidence.
