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The Duke of Lumpton coughed noisily again, and his friend, Lord Mawdenham, who up to the present had occupied the time in staring vaguely about him and anxiously feeling his pimples, said hurriedly: "Oh, look here, Sir Morton er I say, er hadn't we better be going?
As he approached, Sir Morton made a rapid sign to his companions and stepped down from the chancel. "Glad to see you, Mr. Walden," he said in a loud whisper, and with an elaborate affectation of great heartiness; "I have brought His Grace the Duke of Lumpton to see the church." Walden allowed his calm blue eyes to rest quietly on His Grace the Duke of Lumpton without much interest.
Lumpton, who, when he was a few years younger, danced the skirt-dance in women's clothes for forty pounds a night at a New York restaurant! Mawdenham, who pawned all his mother's jewels to pay his losses at Bridge and Lady Elizabeth Messing, who is such an abandoned old creature that her own married daughters won't know her! Oh, dear!
"Well, Sir Morton Pippitt spoke of you once in my hearing" he said "And a friend of his whom he brought to see the church, the Duke of Lumpton. Also a clergyman in this neighbourhood, a Mr. Leveson rector at Badsworth HE mentioned you, and presumed" here John paused a moment, "yes, I think I may say presumed to know yon personally." "Did he really! I never heard of him!" And she laughed merrily.
He was not long in this state of indecision, however, for a bright idea occurred to him, causing a smile to spread among his loose cheek-wrinkles. "I'm sorry my friend the Duke of Lumpton has left me," he said with unctuous pomp. "He would have been delighted er delighted to call with me to-day " "Who is he?" enquired Maryllia, languidly.
Leveson stayed his bicycle a moment, wobbling on it uneasily. "Lumpton goes back a good way," he said airily; "I shall take him up when I have gone through the history of the Vancourts. I'm on that scent now. I shall make a good bit of business directly Miss Vancourt returns; she'll pay for anything that will help her to stiffen her back and put more side on." "Really!" ejaculated Walden, coldly.
Walden, we must go! Lady Elizabeth Messing is coming to lunch with us at Badsworth. You have no doubt heard of her eldest daughter of the Earl of Charrington! yes, we must really be going! I think I may say, may I not, your Grace?" here he bent towards the ducal Lumpton "that we are all highly pleased with the way in which Mr. Waldon has effected the restoration of the church?"
Sir Morton Pippitt, the Duke of Lumpton, and Lord Mawdenham hovered before him like three dull puppets in a cheap show; and he was inclined to look up the name of Marius Longford in one of the handy guides to contemporary biography, in order to see if that flaccid and fish-like personage had really done anything In the world to merit his position as a shining luminary of the 'Savage and Savile. Accustomed as he was to watch the ebb and flow of modern literature, he had not yet sighted either the Longford straw or the Adderley cork, among the flotsam and jetsam of that murky tide.
His Grace the Duke of Lumpton coughed loudly; he hated music, and always made some animal noise of his own to drown it. "What matters the period!" murmured Julian Adderley, running his thin hand through his thick hair. "Is it not sufficient to see it here among us, with us, OF us?" "God bless my soul!
Here he pushed aside with a smothered 'Damn! the footman, who stood holding open the door of the waggonette, and officiously gave the Duke of Lumpton a hand to help him into the carriage. "Now, Lord Mawdenham, please! You next, Mr. Longford! Come, come, Mr. Adderley! Think of Lady Elizabeth! She will be arriving at the Hall before we are there to receive her! Terrible, terrible! Come along!
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