Betty, as well as Rosalie and Nigel--knew that many people turned undisguisedly to look at them--even to watch them as they came into the splendid ballroom.It was a splendid ballroom and a stately one, and Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt shared a certain thought when they met her, which was that hers was distinctly the proud young brilliance of presence which figured most perfectly against its background.
Much as people wanted to look at Sir Nigel, their eyes were drawn from him to Miss Vanderpoel.After all it was she who made him an object of interest.One wanted to know what she would do with him--how she would "carry him off."How much did she know of the distaste people felt for him, since she would not talk or encourage talk? The Dunholms could not have invited her and her sister, and have ignored him; but did she not guess that they would have ignored him, if they could? and was there not natural embarrassment in feeling forced to appear in pomp, as it were, under his escort?
But no embarrassment was perceptible.Her manner committed her to no recognition of a shadow of a flaw in the character of her companion.It even carried a certain conviction with it, and the lookers-on felt the impossibility of suggesting any such flaw by their own manner.For this evening, at least, the man must actually be treated as if he were an entirely unobjectionable person.It appeared as if that was what the girl wanted, and intended should happen.
This was what Nigel himself had begun to perceive, but he did not put it pleasantly.Deucedly clever girl as she was, he said to himself, she saw that it would be more agreeable to have no nonsense talked, and no ruffling of tempers.He had always been able to convey to people that the ruffling of his temper was a thing to be avoided, and perhaps she had already been sharp enough to realise this was a fact to be counted with.She was sharp enough, he said to himself, to see anything.
The function was a superb one.The house was superb, the rooms of entertainment were in every proportion perfect, and were quite renowned for the beauty of the space they offered; the people themselves were, through centuries of dignified living, so placed that intercourse with their kind was an easy and delightful thing.They need never doubt either their own effect, or the effect of their hospitalities.
Sir Nigel saw about him all the people who held enviable place in the county.Some of them he had never known, some of them had long ceased to recall his existence.There were those among them who lifted lorgnettes or stuck monocles into their eyes as he passed, asking each other in politely subdued tones who the man was who seemed to be in attendance on Miss Vanderpoel.Nigel knew this and girded at it internally, while he made the most of his suave smile.
The distinguished personage who was the chief guest was to be seen at the upper end of the room talking to a tall man with broad shoulders, who was plainly interesting him for the moment.As the Stornham party passed on, this person, ****** his bow, retired, and, as he turned towards them, Sir Nigel recognising him, the agreeable smile was for the moment lost.
"How in the name of Heaven did Mount Dunstan come here?" broke from him with involuntary heat.
"Would it be rash to conclude," said Betty, as she returned the bow of a very grand old lady in black velvet and an imposing tiara, "that he came in response to invitation?"The very grand old lady seemed pleased to see her, and, with a royal little sign, called her to her side.As Betty Vanderpoel was a great success with the Mrs.Weldens and old Dobys of village life, she was also a success among grand old ladies.When she stood before them there was a delicate submission in her air which was suggestive of obedience to the dignity of their years and state.Strongly conservative and rather feudal old persons were much pleased by this.In the present irreverent iconoclasm of modern times, it was most agreeable to talk to a handsome creature who was as beautifully attentive as if she had been a specially perfect young lady-in-waiting.
This one even patted Betty's hand a little, when she took it.She was a great county potentate, who was known as Lady Alanby of Dole--her house being one of the most ancient and interesting in England.
"I am glad to see you here to-night," she said."You are looking very nice.But you cannot help that."Betty asked permission to present her sister and brother-in-law.Lady Alanby was polite to both of them, but she gave Nigel a rather sharp glance through her gold pince-nez as she greeted him.
"Janey and Mary," she said to the two girls nearest her, "I daresay you will kindly change your chairs and let Lady Anstruthers and Miss Vanderpoel sit next to me."The Ladies Jane and Mary Lithcom, who had been ordered about by her from their infancy, obeyed with polite smiles.
They were not particularly pretty girls, and were of the indigent noble.Jane, who had almost overlarge blue eyes, sighed as she reseated herself a few chairs lower down.
"It does seem beastly unfair," she said in a low voice to her sister, "that a girl such as that should be so awfully good-looking.She ought to have a turned-up nose.""Thank you," said Mary, "I have a turned-up nose myself, and I've got nothing to balance it.""Oh, I didn't mean a nice turned-up nose like yours," said Jane; "I meant an ugly one.Of course Lady Alanby wants her for Tommy." And her manner was not resigned.
"What she, or anyone else for that matter," disdainfully, "could want with Tommy, I don't know," replied Mary.
"I do," answered Jane obstinately."I played cricket with him when I was eight, and I've liked him ever since.It is AWFUL," in a smothered outburst, "what girls like us have to suffer."Lady Mary turned to look at her curiously.
"Jane," she said, "are you SUFFERING about Tommy?""Yes, I am.Oh, what a question to ask in a ballroom!
Do you want me to burst out crying?"
