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The fishermen crowded round the Coast-Guard men as they ran the cart close down to the water's edge, and some of them specially the smart young fellow already mentioned made eager offer of their services. Charlie Brooke stood aloof, looking on with profound interest, for it was the first time he had ever seen the Manby rocket apparatus brought into action.
I think this must have been written about the date of the letter with which I commence the next chapter, or possibly a little later. It would, almost certainly, be after the catches of mackerel mentioned by "Mr. Manby" as hereinafter appears, and, very likely, after the termination of the partnership. Either in March or April, 1870, FitzGerald wrote to Posh the quaint letter which follows:
There was another good-looking naval officer, a Captain Manby, and also Sir Thomas Lawrence, the famous painter, both of whom were admitted to a suspicious intimacy with the Princess of Wales. These rumours, sufficiently disquieting in themselves, were followed by stories of the concealed birth of a child, who had come mysteriously to swell the numbers of the Princess's protégés of the crèche.
'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up. Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good lecture.
Among them were Lady Cardington, Lady Manby, Sally Perceval with her magnificently handsome and semi-idiotic husband, old Lady Blower, in a green cap that suggested the bathing season, Robin Pierce and Mr. Bry. Smart Americans were scattered all over the house.
Lady Holme looked definitely dubious. "I'll tell you who'll be there Lady Cardington, Lady Manby, Mrs. Trent do you know her? Spanish looking, and's divorced two husbands, and's called the scarlet woman because she always dresses in red Sally Perceval, Miss Burns and Pimpernel Schley." "Pimpernel Schley! Who is she?" "The American actress who plays all the improper modern parts.
I may need it at a minute's notice." "I've got a hydroplane which I'll sell this spring to some yachtsman," said Manby. "It's a bargain you can do forty miles an hour in it, without getting a drop of spray. Shall I show it to you?" "Yes, and the two men who you will have alternating on duty, so they will know me when I come for it. I'll pay for every minute it is reserved."
Behind them she saw a compact mass of acquaintances: Lady Cardington sitting with Sir Donald and looking terribly sad, even self-conscious, yet eager; Mrs. Wolfstein with Mr. Laycock; Mr. Bry, his eyeglass fixed, a white carnation in his coat; Lady Manby laughing with a fat old man who wore a fez, and many others.
It was a trim, speedy craft. The criminologist walked down a few blocks to the office of a boat contractor with whom he had dealt on bygone occasions. "I want to engage a fast motor-boat, Mr. Manby," was his request. "The speediest thing you've got. Keep it down at your dock, at Twenty-first Street, with plenty of gasoline and a man on duty all the time, starting with six o'clock to-night.
Men who wouldn't look at her when she was sixteen, twenty-six, thirty-six, worship her now she's sixty. And she weeps for her youth! Who else?" "Mrs. Wolfstein." "A daughter of Israel; coarse, intelligent, brutal to her reddened finger-tips. I'd trust her to judge a singer, actor, painter, writer. But I wouldn't trust her with my heart or half a crown." "Lady Manby." "Humour in petticoats.
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