The Talisman Ring

‘I dare say. It was after –’ He paused for a moment, and then added harshly: ‘– after Ludovic’s affair. I thought France was growing too hot for any grandchild of mine, and by God I was right! How long is it now since they sent the King to the guillotine? Over a month, eh? Mark me, Tristram, the Queen will go the same road before the year is out. I’m happy to think I shan’t be here to see it. Charming she was, charming! But you wouldn’t remember. Twenty years ago we used to wear her colour. Everything was Queen’s Hair: satins, ribbons, shoes. Now’ – his lip curled into a sneer – ‘now I’ve a great-nephew who wears a green coat and yellow pantaloons, and a damned absurd sugar-loaf on his head!’ He raised his heavy eyelids suddenly, and added: ‘But the boy is still my heir!’

Sir Tristram said nothing in answer to this remark, which had been flung at him almost like a challenge. Sylvester took snuff again, and when he spoke it was once more in his faintly mocking drawl. ‘He’d marry Eustacie if he could, but she don’t like him.’ He fobbed his snuff-box with a flick of his finger. ‘The long and the short of it is, I’ve a fancy to see her married to you before I die, Tristram.’

‘Why?’ asked Shield.

‘There’s no one else,’ replied Sylvester bluntly. ‘My fault, of course. I should have provided for her – taken her up to London. But I’m old, and I’ve never pleased anyone but myself. I haven’t been to London above twice in the last three years. Too late to think of that now. I’m dying, and damme, the chit’s my grandchild! I’ll leave her safely bestowed. Time you was thinking of marriage.’

‘I have thought of it.’

Sylvester looked sharply at him. ‘Not in love, are you?’

Shield’s face hardened. ‘No.’

‘If you’re still letting a cursed silly calf affair rankle with you, you’re a fool!’ said Sylvester. ‘I’ve forgotten the rights of it, if ever I knew them, but they don’t interest me. Most women will play you false, and I never met one yet that wasn’t a fool at heart. I’m offering you a marriage of convenience.’

‘Does she understand that?’ asked Shield.

‘Wouldn’t understand anything else,’ replied Sylvester. ‘She’s a Frenchwoman.’

Sir Tristram stepped down from the dais, and went over to the fireplace. Sylvester watched him in silence, and after a moment he said: ‘It might answer.’

‘You’re the last of your name,’ Sylvester reminded him.

‘I know it. I’ve every intention of marrying.’

‘No one in your eye?’

‘No.’

‘Then you’ll marry Eustacie,’ said Sylvester. ‘Pull the bell!’

Sir Tristram obeyed, but with a look of amusement: ‘Your dying wish, Sylvester?’

‘I shan’t live the week out,’ replied Sylvester cheerfully. ‘Heart and hard living, Tristram. Don’t pull a long face at my funeral! Eighty years is enough for any man, and I’ve had the gout for twenty of them.’ He saw his valet come into the room, and said: ‘Send Mademoiselle to me.’

‘You take a great deal for granted, Sylvester,’ remarked Sir Tristram, as the valet went out again.

Sylvester had leaned his head back against the pillows, and closed his eyes. There was a suggestion of exhaustion in his attitude, but when he opened his eyes they were very much alive, and impishly intelligent. ‘You would not have come here, my dear Tristram, had you not already made up your mind.’

Sir Tristram smiled a little reluctantly, and transferred his attention to the fire.

It was not long before the door opened again. Sir Tristram turned as Mademoiselle de Vauban came into the room, and stood looking at her under bent brows.

His first thought was that she was unmistakably a French-woman, and not in the least the type of female he admired. She had glossy black hair, dressed in the newest fashion, and her eyes were so dark that it was hard to know whether they were brown or black. Her inches were few, but her figure was extremely good, and she bore herself with an air. She paused just inside the door, and, at once perceiving Sir Tristram, gave back his stare with one every whit as searching and a good deal more speculative.

Sylvester allowed them to weigh one another for several moments before he spoke, but presently he said: ‘Come here, my child. And you, Tristram.’

The promptness with which his granddaughter obeyed this summons augured a docility wholly belied by the resolute, not to say wilful, set of her pretty mouth. She trod gracefully across the room, and curtseyed to Sylvester before stepping up on to the dais. Sir Tristram came more slowly to the bedside, nor did it escape Eustacie’s notice that he had apparently looked his fill at her. His eyes, still sombre and slightly frowning, now rested on Sylvester.

Sylvester stretched out his left hand to Eustacie. ‘Let me present to you, my child, your cousin Tristram.’

‘Your very obedient cousin,’ said Shield, bowing.

‘It is to me a great happiness to meet my cousin,’ enunciated Eustacie with prim civility and a slight, not unpleasing French accent.

‘I am a little tired,’ said Sylvester. ‘If I were not I might allow you time to become better acquainted. And yet I don’t know: I dare say it’s as well as it is,’ he added cynically. ‘If you want a formal offer, Eustacia, no doubt Tristram will make you one – after dinner.’

‘I do not want a formal offer,’ replied Mademoiselle de Vauban. ‘It is to me a matter quite immaterial, but my name is Eustacie, which is, enfin, a very good name, and it is not Eu-sta-ci-a, which I cannot at all pronounce, and which I find excessively ugly.’