“Whose calendar is the racing calendar,” interposed Lydia, “and who interests himself in favorites and outsiders much as Lucian does in prime-ministers and independent radicals. Would you like to go to Ascot, Alice?”
Alice answered, as she felt Lucian wished her to answer, that she had never been to a race, and that she had no desire to go to one.
“You will change your mind in time for next year’s meeting. A race interests every one, which is more than can be said for the opera or the Academy.”
“I have been at the Academy,” said Alice, who had made a trip to London once.
“Indeed!” said Lydia. “Were you in the National Gallery?”
“The National Gallery! I think not. I forget.”
“I know many persons who never miss an Academy, and who do not know where the National Gallery is. Did you enjoy the pictures, Alice?”
“Oh, very much indeed.”
“You will find Ascot far more amusing.”
“Let me warn you,” said Lucian to Alice, “that my cousin’s pet caprice is to affect a distaste for art, to which she is passionately devoted; and for literature, in which she is profoundly read.”
“Cousin Lucian,” said Lydia, “should you ever be cut off from your politics, and disappointed in your ambition, you will have an opportunity of living upon art and literature. Then I shall respect your opinion of their satisfactoriness as a staff of life. As yet you have only tried them as a sauce.”
“Discontented, as usual,” said Lucian.
“Your one idea respecting me, as usual,” replied Lydia, patiently, as they entered the station.
The train, consisting of three carriages and a van, was waiting at the platform. The engine was humming subduedly, and the driver and fireman were leaning out; the latter, a young man, eagerly watching two gentlemen who were standing before the first-class carriage, and the driver sharing his curiosity in an elderly, preoccupied manner. One of the persons thus observed was a slight, fairhaired man of about twenty-five, in the afternoon costume of a metropolitan dandy. Lydia knew the other the moment she came upon the platform as the Hermes of the day before, modernized by a straw hat, a canary-colored scarf, and a suit of a minute black-and-white chessboard pattern, with a crimson silk handkerchief overflowing the breast pocket of the coat. His hands were unencumbered by stick or umbrella; he carried himself smartly, balancing himself so accurately that he seemed to have no weight; and his expression was selfsatisfied and goodhumored. But — ! Lydia felt that there was a “but” somewhere — that he must be something more than a handsome, powerful, and lighthearted young man.
“There is Lord Worthington,” she said, indicating the slight gentleman. “Surely that cannot be his invalid friend with him?”
“That is the man that lives at the Warren,” said Alice. “I know his appearance.”
“Which is certainly not suggestive of a valetudinarian,” remarked Lucian, looking hard at the stranger.
They had now come close to the two, and could hear Lord Worthington, as he prepared to enter the carriage, saying, “Take care of yourself, like a good fellow, won’t you? Remember! if it lasts a second over the fifteen minutes, I shall drop five hundred pounds.”
Hermes placed his arm round the shoulders of the young lord and gave him a playful roll. Then he said with good accent and pronunciation, but with a certain rough quality of voice, and louder than English gentlemen usually speak, “Your money is as safe as the mint, my boy.”
Evidently, Alice thought, the stranger was an intimate friend of Lord Worthington. She resolved to be particular in her behavior before him, if introduced.
“Lord Worthington,” said Lydia.
At the sound of her voice he climbed hastily down from the step of the carriage, and said in some confusion, “How d’ do, Miss Carew. Lovely country and lovely weather — must agree awfully well with you. Plenty of leisure for study, I hope.”
“Thank you; I never study now. Will you make a book for me at Ascot?”
He laughed and shook his head. “I am ashamed of my low tastes,” he said; “but I haven’t the heap to distinguish myself in your — Eh?”
Miss Carew was saying in a low voice, “If your friend is my tenant, introduce him to me.”
Lord Worthington hesitated, looked at Lucian, seemed perplexed and amused at the name time, and at last said,
“You really wish it?”
“Of course,” said Lydia. “Is there any reason—”
“Oh, not the least in the world since you wish it,” he replied quickly, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he turned to his companion who was standing at the carriage door admiring Lydia, and being himself admired by the stoker. “Mr. Cashel Byron: Miss Carew.”
Mr. Cashel Byron raised his straw hat and reddened a little; but, on the whole, bore himself like an eminent man who was not proud. As, however, he seemed to have nothing to say for himself, Lord Worthington hastened to avert silence by resuming the subject of Ascot. Lydia listened to him, and looked at her new acquaintance. Now that the constraint of society had banished his former expression of easy goodhumor, there was something formidable in him that gave her an unaccountable thrill of pleasure. The same impression of latent danger had occurred, less agreeably, to Lucian, who was affected much as he might have been by the proximity of a large dog of doubtful temper. Lydia thought that Mr. Byron did not, at first sight, like her cousin; for he was looking at him obliquely, as though steadily measuring him.
The group was broken up by the guard admonishing the gentlemen to take their seats. Farewells were exchanged; and Lord Worthington cried, “Take care of yourself,” to Cashel Byron, who replied somewhat impatiently, and with an apprehensive glance at Miss Carew, “All right! all right! Never you fear, sir.” Then the train went off, and he was left on the platform with the two ladies.
“We are returning to the park, Mr. Cashel Byron,” said Lydia.
“So am I,” said he. “Perhaps—” Here he broke down, and looked at Alice to avoid Lydia’s eye. Then they went out together.
When they had walked some distance in silence, Alice looking rigidly before her, recollecting with suspicion that he had just addressed Lord Worthington as “sir,” while Lydia was admiring his light step and perfect balance, which made him seem like a man of cork; he said,
“I saw you in the park yesterday, and I thought you were a ghost. But my trai — my man, I mean — saw you too. I knew by that that you were genuine.”
“Strange!” said Lydia. “I had the same fancy about you.”
“What! You had!” he exclaimed, looking at her. While thus unmindful of his steps, he stumbled, and recovered himself with a stifled oath. Then he became very red, and remarked that it was a warm evening.
Miss Goff, whom he had addressed, assented. “I hope,” she added, “that you are better.”
He looked puzzled. Concluding, after consideration, that she had referred to his stumble, he said,
“Thank you: I didn’t hurt myself.”
“Lord Worthington has been telling us about you,” said Lydia. He recoiled, evidently deeply mortified. She hastened to add, “He mentioned that you had come down here to recruit your health; that is all.”
Cashel’s features relaxed into a curious smile. But presently he became suspicious, and said, anxiously, “He didn’t tell you anything else about me, did he?”
Alice stared at him superciliously. Lydia replied, “No. Nothing else.”
“I thought you might have heard my