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On this occasion Eugénie was bent on business as well as affection. She withdrew her hand from her father's shoulder in order to raise a monitory finger. 'Genius or no, papa, it's time you paid him his money. 'How you go on, Eugénie! said Lord Findon, crossing his knees luxuriously, as the tea filtered down. 'Pray, what money do I owe him?
'Well, so I do mean to buy it, said Lord Findon, closing his watch with a sigh of satisfaction. 'You should have told him so, papa, and advanced him some money. 'It is an excellent thing, my dear Eugénie, for a young man to be kept on tenterhooks. Otherwise they soon get above themselves. 'You have driven him into debt, papa. 'What on earth do you mean? 'I have been questioning Mr. Cuningham.
That Fenwick's obscure and crazy wife should have dared to entertain jealousy of a being so far above his ken and hers, as Eugénie then was that she should have made a ridiculous tragedy out of it and that Fenwick should have conduced to the absurd and insulting imbroglio by his ill-bred and vulgar concealment: these things were so irritating to Lord Findon that they first stimulated a rapid recovery from his illness at Versailles, and then led him to frantic efforts on Phoebe's behalf, which were in fact nothing but the expression of his own passionate pride and indignation resting, no doubt ultimately, on those weeks at Versailles when even he, with all the other bystanders, had supposed that Eugénie would marry this man.
When at last he descended the stairs, he felt as though he were just escaped from a wrestling-match. He followed Cuningham into the omnibus with nerves all on edge. He hated the notion, too, of taking an omnibus to go and dine in St. James's Square. But Cuningham's Scotch thriftiness scouted the proposal of a hansom. On the way Fenwick suddenly asked his companion whether there was a Lady Findon.
Lady Findon, the second wife, fat, despotic, and rich, rather noisy, and something of a character, a political hostess, a good friend, and a still better hater; two sons, silent, good-looking and clever, one in the brewery that provided his mother with her money, the other in the Hussars; two daughters not long 'introduced' one pretty the other bookish and rather plain; so ran the catalogue.
She always spoke of what she had been doing, quite naturally and simply, describing their walk and their conversation, giving the news of Fenwick's work bringing his sketches to show. Lord Findon would lie and listen a little suspicious and ill at ease sometimes a little sulky. But he let his illness and his voicelessness excuse him from grappling with her. She must, of course, please herself.
The older men were silenced, and Fenwick was leaning across the table, gesticulating with one hand, and lifting his port-wine with the other, addressing now Lord Findon and now the Ambassador who stared at him in amazement with an assurance that the world only allows to its oldest favourites. Lord Findon in vain tried to stop him.
He stood behind the other two while Lord Findon was talking frowning sometimes and restless a movement now and then in lips and body, as though he were about to speak yet not speaking. It was one of those moments when a man feels a band about his tongue, woven by shyness or false shame, or social timidity. He knows that he ought to speak; but the moment passes and he has not spoken.
Eugénie put out a hand and patted his shoulder tenderly. She and her father were the best of comrades, and they showed it most plainly in Lady Findon's absence. That lady was again on her travels, occupied in placing her younger daughter for a time in a French family, with a view to 'finishing. Eugénie or Lord Findon wrote to her every day; they discussed her letters when they arrived with all proper égards; and, for the rest, enjoyed their tête-
She looked round to make sure that the servants had finished clearing away the tea, and that they were alone. 'The days and the hours, she said, softly. 'One must have something to think of. Lord Findon frowned. 'He will fall in love with you, Eugénie and then where shall we be? He heard a laugh very sweet very feminine, yet, to his ear, very forlorn. 'I'll take care of that.
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