CHAPTER XXI

Mrs. Boulby’s ears had not deceived her; it had been a bet:  and the day would have gone disastrously with Robert, if Mrs. Lovell had not won her bet.  What was heroism to Warbeach, appeared very outrageous blackguardism up at Fairly.  It was there believed by the gentlemen, though rather against evidence, that the man was a sturdy ruffian, and an infuriated sot.  The first suggestion was to drag him before the magistrates; but against this Algernon protested, declaring his readiness to defend himself, with so vehement a magnanimity, that it was clearly seen the man had a claim on him.  Lord Elling, however, when he was told of these systematic assaults upon one of his guests, announced his resolve to bring the law into operation.  Algernon heard it as the knell to his visit.

He was too happy, to go away willingly; and the great Jew City of London was exceedingly hot for him at that period; but to stay and risk an exposure of his extinct military career, was not possible.  In his despair, he took Mrs. Lovell entirely into his confidence; in doing which, he only filled up the outlines of what she already knew concerning Edward.  He was too useful to the lady for her to afford to let him go.  No other youth called her “angel” for listening complacently to strange stories of men and their dilemmas; no one fetched and carried for her like Algernon; and she was a woman who cherished dog-like adoration, and could not part with it.  She had also the will to reward it.

At her intercession, Robert was spared an introduction to the magistrates.  She made light of his misdemeanours, assuring everybody that so splendid a horseman deserved to be dealt with differently from other offenders.  The gentlemen who waited upon Farmer Eccles went in obedience to her orders.

Then came the scene on Ditley Marsh, described to that assembly at the Pilot, by Stephen Bilton, when she perceived that Robert was manageable in silken trammels, and made a bet that she would show him tamed.  She won her bet, and saved the gentlemen from soiling their hands, for which they had conceived a pressing necessity, and they thanked her, and paid their money over to Algernon, whom she constituted her treasurer.  She was called “the man-tamer,” gracefully acknowledging the compliment.  Colonel Barclay, the moustachioed horseman, who had spoken the few words to Robert in passing, now remarked that there was an end of the military profession.

“I surrender my sword,” he said gallantly.

Another declared that ladies would now act in lieu of causing an appeal to arms.

“Similia similibus, &c.,” said Edward.  “They can, apparently, cure what they originate.”

“Ah, the poor sex!” Mrs. Lovell sighed.  “When we bring the millennium to you, I believe you will still have a word against Eve.”

The whole parade back to the stables was marked by pretty speeches.