The Quiet Gentleman

‘You might hit me out of practice; you won’t do it out of temper,’ said Gervase dryly.

‘Won’t I? Won’t I?’ gasped Martin, stung to blind rage by this merited but decidedly provocative rebuke.

He closed the Earl’s blade, and on the instant saw that the button had become detached from his point. Gervase saw it too, and quickly retired his left foot, to get out of distance. ‘Take care!’ he said sharply.

‘You may take care!’ Martin panted, and delivered a rather wild thrust in prime. It was parried by the St George Guard; and even as he became conscious of the enormity of what he had done, he found himself very hard-pressed indeed. He would have dropped his point at a word, but the word was not spoken. Gervase was no longer smiling, and his eyes had narrowed, their lazy good-humour quite vanished. Martin was forced to fight. A careless, almost mechanical thrust in carte over the arm was parried by a sharp beat of the Earl’s forte, traversing the line of his blade, and bearing his wrist irresistibly upwards. The Earl’s left foot came forward; his hand seized the shell of Martin’s sword, and forced it out to the right; he gripped it fast, and presented the button of his foil to Martin’s face.

‘The Disarm!’ he said, holding Martin’s eyes with his own.

Martin relinquished his foil. His chest was heaving; he seemed as though he would have said something, but before he could recover his breath enough to do so an interruption occurred. Theo, who, for the past few minutes, had been standing, with Miss Morville, rooted on the threshold, strode forward, ejaculating thunderously: ‘Martin! Are you mad?’

Martin started, and looked round, a sulky, defensive expression on his flushed countenance. His brother laid down the foils. Miss Morville’s matter-of-fact voice broke into an uncomfortable silence. ‘How very careless of you, not to have observed that the button is off your point!’ she said severely. ‘There might have been an accident, if your brother had not been sharper-eyed than you.’

‘Oh, no, there might not!’ Martin retorted. ‘I couldn’t touch him! There was no danger!’

He caught up his coat as he spoke, and, without looking at Gervase, went hastily out of the gallery.

‘I expect,’ said Miss Morville, with unruffled placidity, ‘that swords are much like guns. My Papa was used to say, when they were boys, that he would not trust my brothers with guns unless he were there to keep an eye on them, for let a boy become only a little excited and he would forget the most commonplace precautions. I came to tell you, Lord St Erth, that your Mama-in-law wishes you will join her in the Amber Drawing-room. General Hawkhurst has come to pay his respects to you.’

‘Thank you! I will come directly,’ he replied.

‘Drusilla, you will not mention to anyone – what you saw a moment ago!’ Theo said.

She paused in the doorway, looking back over her shoulder. ‘Oh, no! Why should I, indeed? I am sure Martin would very much dislike it if anyone were to roast him for being so heedless.’

With this prosaic reply, she left the Armoury, closing the door behind her.

‘Gervase, what happened?’ Theo said. ‘How came Martin to be fencing with a naked point?’

‘Oh, he tried to cross my blade, but since I am rather too old a hand to be caught by such a trick as that, it was his sword, not mine, which was lost,’ Gervase said lightly. ‘The button was loosened, I daresay, by the fall.’

‘Are you trying to tell me that he did not perceive it?’

Gervase smiled. ‘Why, no! But the thing was, you see, that he was so angry with me for being the better swordsman that his rage quite overthrew his judgment, and he tried to pink me. I was never in any danger, you know: he has not been so badly taught, but he lacks precision and pace.’

‘So I saw! You had him clearly at your mercy, but that cannot excuse his conduct!’

‘As to that, perhaps I was a little at fault,’ Gervase confessed. ‘But, really, you know, Theo, he is such an unschooled colt that I thought he deserved a set-down! I own, I said what I knew must enrage him. No harm done: he is now very much ashamed of himself, and that must be counted as a gain.’

‘I hope you may be found to be right. But –’ He broke off, his brows contracting.

‘Well?’

‘It happened as you have described, of course, but –’ he raised his eyes to his cousin’s face, and said bluntly: ‘Gervase, be a little more careful, I beg of you! You might not have noticed it, but I saw, in his face, such an expression of fury – I had almost said, of hatred – !’

‘Yes, I did notice it,’ Gervase said quietly. ‘He would have been happy to have murdered me, would he not?’

‘No, no, don’t think it! He is, as you have said, an unschooled colt, and he has been used to being so much petted and praised – But he would not murder you!’

‘It was certainly his intention, my dear Theo!’

‘Not his intention!’ Theo said swiftly. ‘His impulse, at that instant!’

‘The distinction is too nice for his victim to appreciate. Come, Theo! Be plain with me, I beg of you! You tried to put me on my guard, I fancy, that first evening, when you came to my bedchamber, and drank a glass of brandy with me there. Was it against Martin that you were warning me?’ He waited for a moment. ‘I am answered, I suppose!’

‘I don’t know. I dare not say so! Only be a little wary, Gervase! If some accident were to befall you – why, I dare swear he himself would adm

it to being glad of it! But that he would contrive to bring about such an accident I have never believed, until I saw his face just now! The suspicion did then flash into my mind – but it must be nonsensical!’