LORD OF MANY SECRETS

THIRTY SIX

"Is she dark or fair?" inquired his sister.

But to this question he could not give any very certain answer. He rather thought Miss Mamala's eyes were blue, but they might be grey, he could not be sure. She was not tall, quite the reverse, yet Elizabeth must not be imagining a dab of a girl. It was no such thing, but she would see for herself.

After a good deal in this strain he took himself off to bed, leaving his sister to her reflection.

She had not been used to seeing him in the toils of a young woman, and could hardly be blamed for feeling a certain jealousy. She did her best to banish it, and succeeded very fairly. When Lady Mamala, who turned out to be a very kindly sensible woman in the early forties, came to pay her promised call, she did bring her eldest daughter with her, and Elizabeth had leisure to observe Patrick's charmer.

Miss Mamala was not long out of the school room, and had all the natural shyness of her Seventeen years. She regarded Elizabeth out of a pair of large dove-like eyes with a great deal of awe, colored a little when directly addressed, and allowed her soft mouth to tremble into a fugitive, appealing smile. She had pretty brown girls, and a neat figure, but to Elizabeth, who was built on Junoesque lines, she could not seem other than short.

When Patrick came in, which he presently did, Lady Mamala greeted him with marked complaisance, and took the opportunity to beg the company both of him and his sister to dinner on the following Tuesday. The invitation was accepted. Patrick had in fact accepted it before Elizabeth could recollect her own engagements. On the pretext of showing Miss Tellaro a book of views which Elizabeth had previously been looking at, he contrived to draw her a little apart, a maneuver which was observed by the lady's mama without provoking her to any other sign than a faint smile. Miss Tellaro concluded that her visitor would be inclined to look favorably upon a possible match. She was not surprised. Patrick was well born, handsome, and Possessed of a large fortune. No mother with five daughters to see suitably established, could be blamed for giving so eligible a suitor just a little encouragement.

Upon inquiry, the Mamalas were found to be a very respectable family living in good style in Banana Street. They moved in the best circles, without aspiring to belong to the Carlton House set, had one son in the army, one at present at Oxford, and a third at Wales.

When Tuesday came, the company invited to dinner was found to be not numerous, but extremely select, and the party went off without any other hitch than that occasioned by Lord Douglas and Walsh, who, from the circumstance of his being excessively absent-minded and fancying himself in his own house, apologized very audibly to Miss Tellaro for the badness of one of the entrées. He said that the cook was ill.

The gentlemen soon joined the ladies after dinner. A whist-table was formed, and the rest of the party sat down, some to play a few rubbers of Casino, and the rest to a game of lottery-table, Elizabeth was amused but not surprised to see Patrick taking a chair beside her. She reflected with an inward smile that this was just such an evening as a week ago he would have voted very poor sport.

* * *

Contrary to his sister's expectations, Patrick's infatuation for Miss Mamala showed no sign of abating. He continued to go about town a great deal, but when ever opportunity offered he was to be found, if not on the Mamala doorstep, certainly at any party where they were likely to be present. Miss Tellaro informed her cousin that she did not know whether to be cross or glad. A love-lorn Patrick was tiresome, but if Miss Mamala's attractions could keep him out of gaming clubs and tarvens she must certainly be glad. When she found his thoughts to be dwindling on marriage she was a little dubious. He seemed to her to be too young to be thinking of such a thing.

However that might be, within one month of having met Miss Mamala he had come to such a good understanding with her that he took his courage in both hands, and sought an interview with her parents.

Lady Mamala, who besides wishing to see her daughter so triumphantly bestowed, was in a fair way to loving Patrick quite for his own sake, showed a marked inclination to accept him into her family without any more ado, but sir Maxwell, with greater common sense, thought the young couple would do well to wait. He was by no means anxious to lose his daughter, and might conceivably feel some doubt of her suitor's stability, but even he must feel that the match would be a better one than he had ever hoped to see his Vivian make. He would not forbid the engagement, but his notions of propriety, which were very nice, made him refuse to listen to any offer that was made without Lord Clements' knowledge or approval.

This pronouncement had the effect of sending Patrick off speedily to his guardian.

Clements, however, proved to be somewhat elusive. Three consecutive calls at his house failed to discover him, and after an abortive attempt to compose a letter which should explain everything to his lordship, Patrick hit upon the notion of looking for him at his clubs.

This plan was more successful. After being told at White's that the Earl had gone out of town, and at the Alfred that he had not been inside the club for six months, he finally ran him to earth at Watier's, where he was playing macao.

"Oh!" said Patrick. "So you are here! I have been searching for you all over town!"

The Earl cast him a look of faint surprise, and gathered up his cards.