The Young Duke. Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli

her impudence. That confounded scrape of Carlstein! I will cashier him to-morrow. Confound his airs! I think I got out of it pretty well. To-night, on the whole, has been a night of triumph; but if I do not waltz with the little Dacre I will only vote myself an ovation. But see, here comes Sir Lucius. Well! how fares my brother consul?’

      ‘I do not like this rain. I have been hedging with Hounslow, having previously set Bag at his worthy sire with a little information. We shall have a perfect swamp, and then it will be strength against speed; the old story. Damn the St. Leger. I am sick of it.’

      ‘Pooh! pooh! think of the little Dacre!’

      ‘Think of her, my dear fellow! I think of her too much. I should absolutely have diddled Hounslow, if it had not been for her confounded pretty face flitting about my stupid brain. I saw you speaking to Guardy. You managed that business well.’

      ‘Why, as I do all things, I flatter myself, Lucy. Do you know Lord St. Jerome?’

      ‘Verbally. We have exchanged monosyllables; but he is of the other set.’

      ‘He is cursedly familiar with the little Dacre. As the friend of her father, I think I shall interfere. Is there anything in it, think you?’

      ‘Oh! no; she is engaged to another.’

      ‘Engaged!’ said the Duke, absolutely turning pale.

      ‘Do you remember a Dacre at Eton?’

      ‘A Dacre at Eton!’ mused the Duke. At another time it would not have been in his power to have recalled the stranger to his memory; but this evening the train of association had been laid, and after struggling a moment with his mind he had the man. ‘To be sure I do: Arundel Dacre, an odd sort of a fellow; but he was my senior.’

      ‘Well, that is the man; a nephew of Guardy, and cousin, of course, to La Bellissima. He inherits, you know, all the property. She will not have a sou; but old Dacre, as you call him, has managed pretty well, and Monsieur Arundel is to compensate for the entail by presenting him with a grandson.’

      ‘The deuce!’

      ‘The deuce, indeed! Often have I broken his head. Would that I had to a little more purpose!’

      ‘Let us do it now!’

      ‘He is not here, otherwise——One dislikes a spooney to be successful.’

      ‘Where are our friends?’

      ‘Annesley with the Duchess, and Squib with the Duke at écarté.’

      ‘Success attend them both!’

      ‘Amen!’