False Colours

Kit looked a little quizzically at him. ‘What he will imagine, Eve, is that you’re as volatile as ever you were, and will soon have formed a lasting passion for another lady!’

‘He’ll discover his mistake! I don’t deny I’ve fancied myself in love a dozen times, or that I didn’t think even the liveliest of my flirts a dead bore, after a few weeks of dangling about her! To own the truth, when I offered for Cressy, I’d reached the conclusion that I was volatile! Hence Clara – and several other bits of muslin! Then I met Patience, and knew that I had never been in love before. She’s not dashing, or lively, or full of fun and wit, and I daresay you might not consider her to be as beautiful as some others I could name. But I have been constantly in her company, and the very notion that I could think her a dead bore is so absurd – so fantastic – Oh, I can’t explain it to you, Kester!’

‘Listen, Eve!’ Kit said. ‘You needn’t explain it to me! I know, and if I didn’t it would make no odds! All that concerns us is the light in which my uncle will look upon the marriage. There’s never been any hiding of teeth between us, so I’ll tell you without roundaboutation that my uncle will be at one with Askham in thinking it a most unequal match. Which, from what you’ve told me, I collect that it is, if one looks at it from a worldly point of view.’

‘Dash it, Kester, I haven’t fallen in love with the daughter of a Cit, or a mere smatterer. Her birth may not be noble, but it is as respectable as my own! The Askhams are not fashionable, but they are well-connected, so if you are picturing to yourself a family of – of dowdy provincials, you’re fair and far off! Askham is a man of culture, his wife a most superior woman, and Patience herself as much beyond my touch as any star in the sky! As for fortune, my uncle has said himself it’s unimportant!’

Kit, well aware that his twin was placing too liberal a construction on Lord Brumby’s words, asked bluntly: ‘What is her fortune?’

Evelyn flushed. ‘She has none! Oh, that’s to say none that my uncle would consider worth the mention! Askham is not affluent. You may say that he was born to an independence! I should describe his circumstances as comfortable rather than handsome, and his family is large. He told me frankly that he could not dower Patience with anything more than a sum that would seem paltry to me; and I told him, as frankly, that I’m not hanging out for an heiress, and should think myself fortunate to win Patience if she hadn’t as much as a grig to call her own!’

‘I daresay! But if you think to make a hand of it by telling all that to my uncle it must be midsummer moon with you! Good God, his notion of what is due to your consequence is as top-lofty as ever Papa’s was, and pretty near as stiff-rumped!’

‘Damn my consequence! When I think that if it were not so imperative for me to get possession of my fortune I shouldn’t care a straw for my uncle’s opinion – But it is imperative!’

‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ said Kit. ‘Not in Dun territory on your own account, are you?’

‘Of course I’m not! However volatile I may be!’ Evelyn snapped.

‘Then it’s merely a question of Mama’s debts, and I think –’

He was interrupted by a sudden crack of laughter from his twin. ?

?The word I like is merely!’ Evelyn told him.

‘– and I think,’ repeated Kit, ‘that the best way out of the difficulty is for me to settle them.’

There was a moment’s astonished silence before Evelyn demanded: ‘Have you run mad, Kester? You can’t surely be bosky after a couple of brandies!’

‘Neither mad nor bosky. It hadn’t occurred to me until a minute ago, and I fancy it didn’t occur to you either: we’ve been forgetting that legacy of mine, Eve!’ He walked across the room to set down his glass, and came back to the day-bed. ‘I haven’t been able to go into things with the lawyers yet, but I collect the stocks ought to realize something in the neighbourhood of £20,000. There are no strings tied to the bequest, so –’

‘So that makes everything as right as a ram’s horn! I wonder that I shouldn’t have thought of it myself. We’ll call it a wedding-present, shall we?’

Kit grinned, but said: ‘Now, don’t be a gudgeon, twin! If you?–’

‘I a gudgeon?’ gasped Evelyn. ‘Well, if that don’t beat the Dutch!’

‘Gammon! I’ve as much right as you to rescue Mama!’

‘You haven’t, and you know it! The obligation was my father’s, and it has descended to me! Try playing off your tricks?on someone who ain’t your twin, you unconscionable humbug!’

‘Call it a loan!’ suggested Kit. ‘It was only a windfall, remember! My father left me very well provided for, and I don’t stand in need of it. You can pay it back to me when you’re thirty, after all!’

‘Oh, do stop talking such slum, Kester!’ begged Evelyn. ‘You might just as well, for there’s no power on earth that would make me consent to such a scheme! Would you consent to it, if our positions were reversed?’

‘No, I don’t suppose I should,’ Kit admitted.

‘Well, I know you wouldn’t!’ Evelyn got up. ‘I must be off, or poor old Pinny won’t get a wink of sleep: she means to undress me! Kester, could you spare me Challow tomorrow? I want him to drive me to Brighton. I didn’t see Silverdale, you know, and I must. He’s got a damned mischief-making tongue, and if he were to discover the truth about that brooch it would be all over London within a sennight.’

‘You didn’t see him! I hoped that that business at least had been settled.’

‘I couldn’t. I found he was visiting the Regent. That was a facer to start with! I’ve never exchanged more than half-a-dozen words with the Regent in my life, and that was at the levée my father dragged us both to at our come-out! Well, is it likely I should be acquainted with him? He’s old enough to be my father, and Papa never was one of his set. I hadn’t thought it would be difficult to get my name sent in to Silverdale, but it was dashed difficult – particularly when I took out my card-case, and found it empty! I shouldn’t wonder at it if they thought I was an imposter, at the door! In any event, they said that his lordship had gone into the country that day. I don’t know if it was true, or not, but there was no arguing the point, so I desired them, with haughty composure (though not by half as haughty as theirs!), to inform his lordship that I was sorry to have found him absent, but should hope to have the good fortune to see him when I returned to Brighton, within a sennight or so. I couldn’t remain in Brighton, you see, because I wanted to visit Clara before returning to London, and I was a trifle pressed for time. Which reminds me, Kester! Send Fimber down to me tomorrow, will you? I want some clothes to wear, my snuff, and some visiting-cards! He can help me to dress, too.’

‘I’ll do that, but you won’t need your cards, and you won’t need Challow. You’re not going to Brighton, so don’t think it! For one thing, we can’t have two Denvilles at large – and one of them with his arm in a sling! For another, you’re in no case to be jauntering about. I’ll go, if you’ll tell me exactly what you want me to say to Silverdale, and how I’m to redeem the brooch. If it’s by a draft on the Bank, can you write it?’

‘I should think I might be able to, but it isn’t. By rag-money, because I am acting on Mama’s behalf, and it is she who is to redeem the brooch. I’ve got a roll of soft in my nightbag, and Fimber can bring it to you tomorrow. Kester, will you do it for me? I ought not to permit you to, but by now Brighton is probably as full as it can hold of people who know us, and I do see that it won’t do for me to be in two places at once – and in one of them with a broken shoulder! That’s the sort of thing that always gets to be known! And I daresay,’ he added, in a thoughtful tone, ‘that you know much better than I do how to force your way into royal residences!’

‘One of my chief duties!’ agreed Kit. ‘Sit down again while I put on some clothes, and I’ll go with you to Pinny’s cottage, and put you to bed. You can give me your roll of soft, too.’