False Colours

‘Yes, and he agreed to lend me £5000 – at interest, of course! – and so then I was in funds again. Oh, Kit, don’t frown like that! Are you thinking that I should rather have applied to Bonamy Ripple? I couldn’t, you see, because he had gone off to Paris, and the matter was – was a little urgent!’

For as long as Kit could remember, this elderly and extremely wealthy dandy had run tame about his home, regarded by himself and Evelyn as a fit subject for ridicule, and by their father with indifference. He had been one of Lady Denville’s many suitors, and when she had married Lord Denville he had become her most faithful cicisbeo. He was generally supposed to have remained a bachelor for her sake; but since his figure resembled nothing so much as an over-ripe pear, and his countenance was distinguished only by an expression of vacuous amiability and the snuff-stains on his fat cheeks, not even the more determined brewers of scandal-broth could detect anything in his devotion but food for mockery. The twins, inured to his frequent appearances in Hill Street, accepted him with much the same contemptuous tolerance as they would have felt for an over-fed lap-dog which their mama chose to encourage. But although Kit would have hooted with ribald laughter at the suggestion that any impropriety attached to Sir Bonamy’s fidelity he was far from thinking it desirable that his mother should apply to him for help in her financial difficulties, and he said so.

‘Good gracious, Kit, as though I hadn’t often done so!’ she exclaimed. ‘It is by far the most comfortable arrangement, because he is so rich that he doesn’t care how many of my bonds he holds, and never does he demand the interest on the loans he makes me! As for dunning me to repay him, I am persuaded such a notion never entered his head. He may be absurd, and growing fatter every day, but I have been used to depend on him for years, in all manner of ways! It was he who sold my jewels for me, and had them copied, for instance, besides –’ She stopped abruptly. ‘Oh, I wish I had never mentioned him! It has brought it all back to me! That was what made Evelyn go away!’

‘Ripple?’ he asked, wholly at sea.

‘No, Lord Silverdale,’ she replied.

‘For the lord’s sake, Mama – !’ he expostulated. ‘What are you talking about? What the deuce has Silverdale to say to anything?’

‘He has a brooch of mine,’ she said, sunk suddenly into gloom. ‘I staked it, when he wouldn’t accept my vowels, and continued playing. Something told me the luck was about to turn, and so it might have, if Silverdale would but have played on. Not that I cared for losing the brooch, for I never liked it above half, and can’t conceive why I should have purchased it. I expect it must have taken my fancy, but I don’t recall why.’

‘Has Evelyn gone off to redeem it?’ he interrupted. ‘Where is Silverdale?’

‘At Brighton. Evelyn said there was no time to be lost in buying the brooch back, so off he posted – at least, he drove himself, in his phaeton, with his new team of grays, and he said that he meant to go first to Ravenhurst, which, indeed, he did –’

‘Just a moment, Mama!’ Kit intervened, the frown returning to his brow. ‘Why did Evelyn feel it necessary to go to Brighton? Of course he was obliged to redeem your brooch – Silverdale must have expected him to do so! – but I should have supposed that a letter to Silverdale, with a draft on his bank for whatever sum the brooch represented, would have answered the purpose.’

Lady Denville raised large, stricken eyes to his face. ‘Yes, but you don’t perfectly understand how it was, dearest. I can’t think how I came to be so addlebrained, but when I staked it I had quite forgotten that it was one of the pieces I had had copied! For my part, I consider Silverdale was very well served for having been so quizzy and disobliging about accepting my vowels, but Evelyn said that it was of the first importance to recover the wretched thing before Silverdale discovered that it was only a copy.’

Mr Fancot drew an audible breath. ‘I should rather think he might say so!’

‘But, Kit!’ said her ladyship earnestly, ‘that is much more improvident than anything I should dream of doing! I set its value at £500, which was the value of the real brooch, but the copy isn’t worth a tithe of that! It seems to be quite wickedly extravagant of Evelyn to be squandering such a sum on mere trumpery!’

Mr Fancot toyed for a moment with the idea of explaining to his erratic parent that her view of the matter was, to put it mildly, incorrect. But only for a moment. He was an intelligent young man, and he almost instantly realized that any such attempt would be a waste of breath. So he merely said, as soon as he could command his voice to say anything: ‘Yes, well, never mind that! When did Evelyn set forth on this errand?’

‘Dear one, you cannot have been attending! I told you! Ten days ago!’

‘Well, it wouldn’t have taken him ten days to accomplish it, if Silverdale was in Brighton, so it seems that he can’t have been there. Evelyn must have discovered where he was gone to, and decided to follow him.’

She brightened. ‘Oh, do you think that is what happened? I have been a prey to the most hideous forebodings! But if Silverdale has gone to that place of his in Yorkshire it is very understandable that Evelyn shouldn’t have returned yet.’ She paused, considering the matter, and then shook her head. ‘No. Evelyn didn’t go to Yorkshire. He spent one night at Ravenhurst, just as he told me he would; and then he drove to Brighton. That I do know, for his groom accompanied him; but whether he found Silverdale there or not I can’t tell, because, naturally, Challow doesn’t know. But he returned to Ravenhurst the same day, and stayed the night there. I thought he would do that ?

? in fact, I thought he must have stayed for several days, for he told me that he had matters to attend to at home, and might be absent from London for perhaps as much as a sennight. But he left Ravenhurst the very next morning, and under the most peculiar circumstances!’

‘In what way peculiar, Mama?’

‘He took only his night-bag with him, and he sent Challow back to London with the rest of his gear, saying that he had no need of him.’

‘Oh!’ said Kit. His tone was thoughtful, but not astonished. ‘Did he tell Challow where he was going?’

‘No, and that is another circumstance which makes me very uneasy.’

‘It need not,’ he said, amusement flickering in his eyes. ‘Did he send his valet back to London too? I take it that Fimber is still with him?’

‘Yes, and that is another thing that cuts up my peace! He wouldn’t take Fimber to Sussex: he said there was no room for him in the phaeton, which is true, of course, though it set up all Fimber’s bristles. I must own that I wished he might have found room for him, because I know Fimber will never let him come to harm. Challow is very good too, but not – not as firm! It is the greatest comfort to know that they are both with Evelyn when he goes off on one of his starts.’

‘I’m sure it is, Mama,’ he said gravely.

‘But that’s just it!’ she pointed out. ‘Neither is with him! Kit, it’s no laughing matter! I’m persuaded that some accident has befallen him, or that he’s in some dreadful scrape! How can you laugh?’

‘I couldn’t, if I thought it was true. Now, come out of the dismals, Mama! I never knew you to be such a goose! What do you imagine could have happened to Evelyn?’

‘You don’t think – you don’t think that he did see Silverdale, and quarrelled with him, and – and went off alone that day to meet him?’

‘Taking his night-bag with him in place of a second! Good God, no! You have put yourself into the hips, love! If I know Evelyn, he’s gone off on a private affair which he don’t want you to know anything about! You would, if he had taken Fimber or Challow with him, and he’s well aware of that. They may be a comfort to you, my dear, but they’re often a curst embarrassment to him! As for accidents – fudge! You’d have been apprised of anything of that nature: depend upon it, he didn’t set out to visit Silverdale without his card-case!’

‘No, very true!’ she agreed. ‘I never thought of that!’ Her spirits revived momentarily, only to sink again. Her beautiful eyes clouded; she said: ‘But at such a moment, Kit! When so much hinges upon his presenting himself in Mount Street tomorrow! Oh, no, he could not have gone off on one of his adventures!’