Cotillion

Lord Legerwood sighed. ‘You have your own armour, have you not, Frederick? Of course, I should have known better!’

‘Offended you, sir?’ asked Freddy intelligently.

‘Not at all. How came such an idea as that into your head?’

‘Notice more than you think,’ said Freddy, with simple pride. ‘Never call me Frederick except when I’ve vexed you!’

‘Almost you encourage me to look forward to a brilliant career for you!’ said his lordship, impressed.

‘Shouldn’t think so at all,’ said Freddy decidedly. ‘Wouldn’t suit me. Besides we don’t need two clever coves in the family. Mean to leave that sort of thing to Charlie. You going anywhere, sir?’

‘Merely to White’s.’

‘Come with you,’ said Freddy. ‘Been thinking lately I’d like a word with you.’

‘Surely not!’ countered Lord Legerwood gently. ‘I do not live in the Antipodes!’

Freddy puzzled over this, and said after a moment: ‘Dashed if I see what that has to do with it, sir! You roasting me? I wish you won’t, for I ain’t in funning humour. Children going on well? Daresay you might not have noticed it, but I haven’t been in Mount Street this age. Never seem to have any time to do anything but look after Kit! If it ain’t seeing to it that Meg don’t persuade her into buying a shocking bonnet, it’s driving with her all over London and showing her a lot of tombs and broken-down statues you wouldn’t think anyone would want to look at, let alone pay to look at!’

Fascinated, his father said: ‘Is that what you have been doing?’

‘I should rather think it is! Yes, and that’s put me in mind of another thing I wanted to say to you! This British Museum they talk so much about! You know what, sir? It’s a dashed take-in! Ought to do something about it. Why, if Kit hadn’t happened to have a deuced good book with her, we should have been bit, like a couple of green ’uns!’

‘My dear Freddy,’ said Lord Legerwood, tucking a hand in his arm, ‘come into the club, and tell me about it!’

‘Well, I will,’ Freddy replied. ‘Though that ain’t what I chiefly want to say to you. Find myself in a bit of a fix—at least, shouldn’t wonder at it if I do find myself in one. Had a notion I might do worse than consult you.’

‘You might—much worse!’ said his lordship. ‘But first I must and will hear about the British Museum!’

He then led his son into the club, found a quiet corner in the morning-room, and bade him unburden his soul. He listened with rapt appreciation to Freddy’s account of his ordeal, expressing himself so properly that Freddy was disappointed to find that he did not feel that it lay within his province to expose the several abuses discovered by his heir. When he further disclosed, apologetically, that the question of the acquisition by the nation of the Elgin Marbles was to come up before both Houses that very session, Freddy was shocked and incredulous, and for several minutes forgot the real purpose of this interview. It was not until he had been soothed by a glass of very dry sherry that he remembered it, and then he said, without the smallest preamble: ‘You know the Chevalier d’Evron, sir??

?

‘I have not that pleasure,’ responded Lord Legerwood.

‘Thought as much,’ nodded Freddy. ‘It don’t prove anything, of course, because he’s a young man, and I daresay you might not know him. Ever hear of the family?’

‘No.’

‘Smoky,’ said Freddy gloomily.

Lord Legerwood presently interrupted his meditations. ‘Who is this gentleman, Freddy?’

‘Cousin of Kit’s. She likes him. Mended a doll for her once, or some such stuff. Claud chopped its head off. Sort of thing he would do, come to think of it.’

‘Am I to infer that you don’t share Kitty’s liking for the Chevalier?’

‘Wouldn’t say that,’ replied Freddy, rubbing his nose. ‘Very pleasant fellow. But you know how it is: can’t be on the town without learning to know a flat from a leg!’

‘I am happy to hear you say so. Tell me more of this—leg?’

‘No, no, he ain’t a leg! At least, I don’t know that he is. Shouldn’t think it’s as bad as that. Jack’s too downy to play cards with a leg. But he ain’t a flat either. Daresay you might not have noticed him, but he was at Meg’s party t’other evening.’

‘Are you talking of a handsome young exquisite in a coat of pronounced cut, and an over-large tie-pin?’

‘That’s the fellow,’ said Freddy. ‘Good air, good address, talks of his uncle the Marquis. But they don’t seem to know him at the Embassy.’

‘Disquieting,’ agreed his lordship. ‘One must bear in mind, however, the late-disturbed times in France. Possibly one of the new nobility?’