Davenport Dunn, a Man of Our Day. Volume 1. Lever Charles James
stupid! They might have known, even without the aid of a Peerage, that I was a schoolboy when the Prince was a grown man. The tall girl is good-looking; what’s her name?”
“She’s the daughter of the Honorable Leonidas Shinbone, that’s all I know, – rather a belle at Saratoga, I fancy.”
“Very dreadful!” sighed Lady Grace, fanning herself; “they do make such a mess of what might be very pretty toilette. You could n’t tell her, perhaps, that her front hair is dressed for the back of the head.”
“No, sir; I never play at cards,” said Lord Lackington, stiffly, as an American gentleman offered him a pack to draw from.
“Only a little bluff or a small party of poker,” said the stranger, “for quarter dollars, or milder, if you like it.”
A cold bow of refusal was the reply.
“I told you he was the Lord,” said a friend, in a drawling accent “He looks as if he ‘d ‘mow us all down like grass.’”
Dr. Lanfranchi, the director of the establishment, here interposed, and, by a few words, induced the Americans to retire and leave the others unmolested.
“Thank you, doctor,” said Lady Lackington, in acknowledgment; “your tact is always considerate, – always prompt.”
“These things never happen in the season, my Lady,” said he, with a very slight foreign accentuation of the words. “It is only at times like this that people – very excellent and amiable people, doubtless – ”
“Oh, to be sure they are,” interrupted she, impatiently; “but let us speak of something else. Is that your clairvoyant Princess yonder?”
“Yes, my Lady; she has just revealed to us what was doing at the Crimea. She says that two of the English advanced batteries have slackened their fire for want of ammunition, and that a deserter was telling Todleben of the reason at the moment She is en rapport with her sister, who is now at Sebastopol.”
“And are we to be supposed to credit this?” asked my Lord.
“I can only aver that I believe it, my Lord,” said Lanfranchi, whose massive head and intensely acute features denoted very little intellectual weakness.
“I wish you ‘d ask her why are we lingering so long in this dreary place?” sighed Lady Lackington, peevishly.
“She answered that question yesterday, my Lady,” replied he, quietly.
“How was that? Who asked her? What did she say?”
“It was the Baron von Glum that asked; and her answer was, ‘Expecting a disappointment.’”
“Very gratifying intelligence, I must say. Did you hear that, my Lord?”
“Yes, I heard it, and I have placed it in my mind in the same category as her Crimean news.”
“Can she inform us when we are to get away?” asked her Ladyship.
“She mentioned to-morrow evening as the time, my Lady,” said the doctor, calmly.
A faint laugh of derisive meaning was Lady Lackington’s only reply; and the doctor gravely remarked: “There is more in these things than we like to credit; perhaps our very sense of inferiority in presence of such prediction is a bar to our belief. We do not willingly lend ourselves to a theory which at once excludes us from the elect of prophecy.”
“Could she tell us who’ll win the Derby?” said Spicer, joining the colloquy. But a glance from her Ladyship at once recalled him from the indiscreet familiarity.
“Do you think she could pronounce whose is the arrival that makes such a clatter outside?” said Lord Lackington, as a tremendous chorus of whip-cracking announced the advent of something very important; and the doctor hurried off to receive the visitor. Already a large travelling-carriage, drawn by eight horses, and followed by a “fourgon” with four, had drawn up before the great entrance, and a courier, gold-banded and whiskered, and carrying a most imposingly swollen money-bag, was ringing stoutly for admittance. When Dr. Lanfranchi had exchanged a few words with the courier, he approached the window of the carriage, and, bowing courteously, proceeded to welcome the traveller.
“Your apartments have been ready since the sixteenth, sir; and we hoped each day to have seen you arrive.”
“Have your visitors all gone?” asked the stranger, in a low quiet tone.
“No, sir; the fine weather has induced many to prolong their stay. We have the Princess Labanoff, Lord Lackington, the Countess Grembinski, the Duke of Terra di Monte, the Lady Grace – ”
The traveller, however, paid little attention to the Catalogue, but with the aid of the courier on one side and his-valet on the other, slowly descended from the carriage. If he availed himself of their assistance, there was little in his appearance that seemed to warrant its necessity. He was a large, powerfully built man, something beyond the prime of life, but whose build announced considerable vigor. Slightly stooped in the shoulders, the defect seemed to add to the fixity of his look, for the head was thus thrown more forward, and the expression of the deep-set eyes, overshadowed by shaggy gray eyebrows, rendered more piercing and direct His features were massive and regular, their character that of solemnity and gravity; and as he removed his cap, he displayed a high, bold forehead with what phrenologists would have called an extravagant development of the organs of locality. Indeed, these overhanging masses almost imparted an air of retreating to a head that was singularly straight.
“A number of letters have arrived for you, and you will find them in your room, sir,” continued Lanfranchi, as he escorted him towards the stairs. A quiet bow acknowledged this speech, and the doctor went on: “I was charged with a message from Lord Lackington, too, who desired me to say that he hoped to see you as soon as possible after your arrival. May I inform him when you could receive him?”
“Not to-night; some time to-morrow, about twelve o’clock, or half-past, if that will suit him,” said the stranger, coldly. “Is Baron Glumthal here? Well, tell him to come up to me, and let them send me some tea.”
“May I mention your arrival to his Lordship, for I know his great anxiety?”
“Just as you please,” said the other, in the same quiet tone; while he bowed in a fashion to dismiss his visitor.
Having glanced casually at the addresses of a number of letters, he only opened one or two, and looked cursorily over their contents; and then opening a window which looked over the lake, he placed a chair on the balcony and sat down, as if to rest and reflect in the fresh and still night air. It was a calm and quiet atmosphere, – not a leaf stirred, not a ripple moved the glassy surface of the lake; so that, as he sat, he could overhear Dr. Lanfranchi’s voice beneath announcing his arrival to Lord Lackington.
“If he can receive Glumthal, why can’t he see me?” asked the Viscount, testily. “You must go back and tell him that I desire particularly to meet him this evening.”
“If you wish, my Lord – ”
“I do, sir,” repeated he, more peremptorily. “Lady Lackington and myself have been sojourning here the last three weeks, awaiting this arrival, and I am at a loss to see why our patience is to be pushed further. Pray take him my message, therefore.”
The doctor, without speaking, left the room at once.
Lanfranchi was some minutes in the apartment before he discovered where the stranger was sitting, and then approaching him softly he communicated his Lordship’s request.
“I am afraid you must allow me to take my own way. I have contracted an unfortunate habit in that respect,” said the stranger, with a quiet smile. “Give my compliments to his Lordship, and say that at twelve to-morrow I am at his orders; and tell Baron Glumthal that I expect him now.”
Lanfranchi withdrew; and having whispered the message to the Baron, proceeded to make his communication to the Viscount.
“Very well, sir,” said Lord Lackington, haughtily interrupting; “something like an apology. Men of this sort have a business-like