Black Sheep

He said repressively: 'I make all allowance for the freakish things you delight in saying, but such wild, unthinking talk as this is very unbecoming in you. When you say that you don't care a straw for Calverleigh's reputation, you don't understand what you are saying, for you know nothing about it. It would be shocking if you did.'

'Well, you don't know anything about it either, do you?' she said. 'You can't have known very much before he was sent to India, for you are younger than he is, and he was only twenty at that time; and you can know nothing at all about him from that date onward.'

He found himself obliged to take another turn about the room, his hands clasped behind his back, and his fingers working convulsively. Coming to a halt again, he drew an audible breath, and said: 'Abby! There are circumstances which render any alliance between a Wendover and a Calverleigh impossible – unthinkable! I cannot say more: you must believe me when I tell you that it is so!'

'There is no need for you to say more,' she replied, with composure. 'I know what happened – twenty years ago!'

'What?' He looked, for a moment, horrified, and then incredulous. 'You cannot know!'

'Oh, yes! He eloped with Celia, didn't he? But it was all hushed up, after the manner of her family and ours, and she married Rowland after all.'

'Who told you this?' he demanded, thunderstruck.

'Why, he did, of course – Miles Calverleigh!'

His jaw dropped. He seemed to find it difficult to speak, and stuttered: 'C-Calverleigh t-told you? C-Calverleigh himself ? Good God!' Words failed him. While she watched him in some amusement, he pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped his brow. Regaining a measure of control over his emotions, he said: 'It is worse than I had thought it possible it could be! He must be dead to shame! Lost to every vestige of propriety!'

'I shouldn't think he ever had a vestige of propriety to lose,' she said reflectively. 'As for shame, I don't know, but he is not ashamed of running off with Celia. I see little reason why he should be. It was imprudent – and, of course, improper – but he was very young, and when her father forced Celia to become engaged to Rowland, I daresay it seemed to him to be the only thing to be done. I don't blame him. Those whom I do blame, and from the bottom of my heart despise, are Papa, and Morval, and Rowland!'

He looked fixedly at her, and, lowering his voice, said, in apocalyptic accents: 'You do not know all! They were not overtaken until the following day!'

She tried not to laugh, but his awful aspect was too much for her. Quite appalled by such depravity, he said sharply: 'Upon my soul! I begin to think you are well matched, you and that scoundrel!'

'Yes, James: I begin to think so too!' she agreed, between irrepressible outbreaks of laughter.

It was perhaps fortunate that they were interrupted at this moment by Selina, who came into the room in a flutter of welcome. To Selina, family ties were all-important; her affections, though not deep, were sincere and enduring, and she was genuinely glad to see James, forgetting, as she fondly embraced him, that the last letter she had received from him had roused her to considerable indignation.

'James! Well! Such a surprise! I hadn't the least notion – and only a fricassee of rabbit and onions for dinner! Now, if only I had known! But Betty or Jane can go into town, and procure some partridges, or perhaps a haunch of venison, which Fletching dresses very well, and is something you were always partial to.'

But James was not staying to dine with his sisters. He was returning to London on the Mail Coach.

> Dismayed, Selina faltered: 'Not staying? But, James – ! You brought your cloak-bag! Mitton has carried it up to your room, and means to unpack it as soon as the bed has been made up!'

'Desire him to bring it down again, if you please. It was my intention to have put up here for a night, but what I have learnt since I entered this room has shocked me so much – I may say, appalled me! – that I prefer to return to London!'

'Good God!' uttered Selina, casting a wildly enquiring look at Abby. 'You cannot mean – oh, but Abby has told you, surely, that we believe there is no danger to be apprehended now? There has been no continued observance: the wretch has only once called since dear Fanny took ill, and with my own eyes I have seen the Creature he is making up to!'

'I am not referring to young Calverleigh,' said James stiffly. 'I came to Bath in the hope of discovering that the very disturbing rumours which have reached me had little foundation in truth. Instead, I learn that your sister has become infatuated with a man who should never have been permitted to cross your threshold!'

'No, no! Oh, pray do not say such things, James!' begged Selina faintly. 'He is perfectly respectable, though I cannot like the way he dresses – so very careless, and coming to pay us a formal visit in top-boots! – and, of course, he must have been sadly rackety when he was young, to have been sent away to India – not that I think it was right to do such a cruel thing, for I don't, and I never shall, and I consider it to be most unjust to say that he ought not to have been allowed to cross the threshold after all these years of being condemned to live in India, which may be a very interesting place, but is most unhealthy, and has burnt him as brown as a nut! And Abby is as much your sister as mine!'

'If Abby is so lost to propriety, to all sense of the duty she owes her family, as to marry Calverleigh, she will no longer be a sister of mine!' he said terribly.

'That's no way to dissuade me!' said Abby.

'No, no, dearest!' implored Selina. 'Pray don't – ! James didn't mean it!'

'When you have heard what I have to say, Selina –'

'Yes, but not now!' said Selina, much agitated. 'Mitton is fetching up the sherry, and I must take off my hat and my pelisse, and then it will be time for luncheon, which we always have, you know – just a baked egg, or a morsel of cold meat – and after wards, when you are calmer, and we shan't be interrupted, which is always so vexatious when one is enjoying a serious discussion. No, I don't mean that! Not enjoying it, because already I am beginning to feel a spasm!'

James eyed her a little uneasily, and said, in a milder voice: 'Very well, I will postpone what I have to say. I do not myself partake of luncheon, but I should be glad of a cup of tea.'

'Yes, dear, of course, though I am persuaded it would do you good to eat a mouthful of something after your journey!'

'Don't press him, Selina! he's bilious,' said Abby.

'Bilious! Oh, then, no wonder – !' cried Selina, her countenance lightening. 'I have the very thing for you, dear James! I will fetch it directly, but on no account sherry!'