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He has bet Chartersea two hundred guineas he rides him for twenty minutes." "The devil he has!" cried his Lordship, jaded no longer. "Why, you must know, Mr. Carvel, there was no groom in my stables who would sit him until Foley made me a present of his man, Miller, who started to ride him to Hyde Park.
You may be sure I was in an agony over this desecration, which I was so powerless to prevent. But as I was thanking my stars that the matter had blown over with Bolingbroke's rejection, there occurred a most singular thing. The figure on the lounge, with vast difficulty, sat up. To our amazement we beheld the bloated face of the Duke of Chartersea staring stupidly.
"My dear friend," I said, vainly trying to steady my voice, "I beg, I pray that you will not lose faith in me, that you will not think any deceit of mine has brought you to these straits. Mr. Dix did not know me, and has had no word from my grandfather of my disappearance. And Mr. Manners, whom I thought my friend, spurned me in the street before the Duke of Chartersea."
Comyn dropped his voice still lower. "I believe she suspects something," he said, rising. "Chartersea is gone off toward the Wilderness, so Tom says. You must not let little Marmaduke see him. If you are not back in a reasonable time, I'll after you."
"His Lordship says Chartersea is a pig and a profligate, and I remember not what else. And that Dolly will not look at him. And so little Mr. Marmaduke may go a-hunting for another title." No wonder I had little desire for dancing that night!
Comyn dropped his voice still lower. "I believe she suspects something," he said, rising. "Chartersea is gone off toward the Wilderness, so Tom says. You must not let little Marmaduke see him. If you are not back in a reasonable time, I'll after you."
His hands were nowhere they were behind his back! God alone knows why he had not murdered me. To keep Chartersea between him and me I swung another quarter. The duke seemed to see my game, struggled against it, tried to rush in under my guard, made a vicious lunge that would have ended me then and there had he not slipped. We were both panting like wild beasts.
Before I knew we were stopped in front of the house, but as I set foot on the step I found myself confronted by a footman in the Manners livery, who cried out angrily to our man: "Make way, make way for his Grace of Chartersea!" Turning, I saw a coach behind, the horses dancing at the rear wheels of the chaise.
As he did not answer, I retained a handful of the grained silk on his shoulder as a measure of precaution. "Is this so?" I repeated. "You must know, I suppose," he said, under his breath, and with a note of sullenness. "I must," I said firmly. "The knowledge is the weapon need, for I, too, am going to meet Chartersea." He ceased quivering all at once.
I repeated, dazed by what he was saying. "How you are talking, Comyn!" "Just that. Ah, how I know her, Richard! She can be reckless beyond notion. And if it were proved to her that you were in love with Miss Swain, the barrister's daughter, over whom we were said to have fought, she would as soon marry Chartersea, or March, or the devil, to show you how little she cared." "With Patty Swain!"
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