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Had there been no special reason why she should or should not have gone with them, the thing would have been easy enough. When two people go to play billiards, a third may surely accompany them. But now, Lady Mabel found that she could not stir. Mrs. Finn, Mrs. Boncassen, and Miss Cassewary were all in the room, but none of them moved.
It may be almost unnecessary to add that though the Earl had polished manners for certain occasions he would sometimes throw them off in the bosom of his own family. "My Lord," said Miss Cassewary she always called him "My Lord" "Lord Silverbridge is going to stand for the Duke's borough in the Conservative interest." "I didn't know the Duke had a borough," said the Earl.
These were the speeches made on the proposing and seconding of the address. "Oh, yes; Lupton did it very well. Lord George didn't seem to be quite so good. Then Sir Timothy Beeswax made a speech, and then Mr. Monk. After that I saw other fellows going away, so I bolted too." "If I were a member of Parliament I would never leave it while the House was sitting," said Miss Cassewary.
"I don't know why she should wait for me," said Silverbridge almost angrily. "I thought that you and she were fast friends." "I suppose we are after a fashion. She might wait for you perhaps." "I think she would, if I could go there." "You are much thicker with her than I ever was. You went to see her at Grex, when nobody else was there." "Is Miss Cassewary nobody?"
"This is the second time since he has been up in town, papa." "He was here last week, I know." "Silverbridge wouldn't come without him." "That's d nonsense," said the Earl. Miss Cassewary gave a start, not, we may presume, because she was shocked, for she could not be much shocked, having heard the same word from the same lips very often; but she thought it right always to enter a protest.
Tregear was below. "Then I shall go down too," said Miss Cassewary. "You'll do nothing of the kind. Will you please to tell me what it is you are afraid of? Do you think that Frank is going to make love to me again?" "No." "Or that if I chose that he should I would let you stop me? He is in love with somebody else, and perhaps I am too. And we are two paupers." "My lord would not approve of it."
But of course I do it with a purpose." "What purpose?" "I think he is making a fool of himself. If somebody does not interfere he will go so far that he will not be able to draw back without misbehaving." "I thought," said Miss Cassewary, in a very low voice, almost whispering, "I thought that he was looking for a wife elsewhere."
There had been objections raised to any intimacy with Frank Tregear; but all that was now nearly two years since. He had been assured over and over again by Miss Cassewary that he need not be afraid of Frank Tregear, and had in a sort of way assented to the young man's visits. "I think he might find something better to do with his time than hanging about here all day."
So she went on in almost high spirits, though alluding to the general decadence of the Grex family, till Tregear took his leave. "I wish he had not come," said Miss Cassewary when he was gone. "Why should you wish that? There is not so much here to amuse me that you should begrudge me a stray visitor."
The Duke, as she assented, kissed her hand, and she knew that this sign of grace was given to his intended daughter-in-law. In all this she half-confided her thoughts and her prospects to her old friend, Miss Cassewary. "That girl has gone at last," she said to Miss Cass. "I fear she has left her spells behind her, my dear." "Of course she has.
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