LORD OF MANY SECRETS

TWENTY TWO

The Earl, however, seemed to be in no hurry to repeat his call. They saw nothing of him for some days, though their visitors were many. Lady Selfer came with one of her daughters, and Mr Cholegh, a very tall thin man with a painted face and a yellow waist coat. He was lavishly scented, which set the Tellaros instantly against him, and talked a great deal about the theater. There did not seem to be an actor alive with whom he was not on terms of intimacy. They discovered later that he had written some plays himself, and even produced them. His manners were particularly gentle and pleasing, and it was not very long before the Tellaros were quite won over to him. He was so kind one must forgive the paint and the scent.

Lady Selfer had to be liked also, and Mrs Andromeda assured her charges that neither she nor her popular husband had an enemy in the world.

Lady Jeremy, another is the all powerful patronesses of Almack's, came with Mrs Drummond Burrell, a lady of icy good breeding, who said little and looked to be insufferably haughty. Lady Jeremy seemed to be very good natured in her restless way. She talked incessantly through out her short visit, and fidgeted with anything that came in the way of her fluttering hands. Getting into her carriage again when the call was over, she said, "well, my dear, I think - don't you? - a charming girl? Quite beautiful! And of course the fortune! They tell me two hundred thousand at the very least! Wet shall see all the fortune hunters at work!" She gave her fairy laugh. "Alvana was telling me poor dear Williamson Palin has left his card in Spear Street already. Well, I am sure I wish the girl a good husband. I think her quite out of the common".

Mrs Drummond Burrell slightly shrugged her shoulders, "Farouche", she said in her cold way. "I detest provincials".

It was unfortunate for Miss Tellaro that this judgement should soon be endorsed by another. Mr John Cliff, who was called the Mosaic Dandy, went for curiosity to pay a morning call in Spear Street, and came away to spread the news through town that the new beauty might better be known at the Milk Maid. His manners had not pleased Miss tellaro. He was affected, talked with a great air of conceit, and put on so much insolent condescension that she was compelled to give him a sharp set down.

Mrs Andromeda admitted the provocation, but was worried over it. "I don't like the creature - I believe no one does. Alexandra hates him, I know - but there's no denying, my love, he has a tongue, and can make mischief. I hope he may not they to ruin you".

But the nickname he had bestowed on Miss Tellaro was sufficiently apt to catch the fashionable fancy. Mr Cliff declared that no gentleman of taste would admire such a blowsy prettiness. A great many people who had been doubtful whether to approve or condemn Elizabeth - for her frank, decided manners were something quite new, only to be tolerated in persons of rank - were at once convinced that she was petty and presuming. Some snubs were dealt her, the throng of would be admirers began to lessen, and more than one lady of fashion turned her shoulder.

The nickname came to Elizabeth's ears, and made her furious. That any dandy should have it in his power to sway public opinion was not to be borne. When she discovered the extent of the harm he had worked, she was not dismayed or tearful, but on the contrary eager for war. She would not change her manners to suit a dandy's taste. She would rather force Society to accept her in the teeth of them all, Alexandra included.

It was in such a dangerous mood that she set out with her brother and Mrs Andromeda to make her first appearance at Almack's. Lady Jeremy, adhering, even in the face of Mrs Drummond Burrell's expressed disapproval, to her original opinion, had sent the vouchers - the most important door into Society was open to Miss Tellaro. It must be for her, Mrs Andromeda said urgently, to do the rest. The door might yet close.

Privately, she thought the girl's looks should carry the day. Elizabeth, in a ball dress of white crêpe with velvet ribbons spangled with gold, and her hair in a myriad loose curls confined by a ribbon with a bow over her left eye, was a vision to please even the most exacting critic. If only she would be a little conciliating!

The evening began badly. Mrs Andromeda was so much taken up with her own and Elizabeth's preparations that she had no glance to spare for Patrick. It was not until the carriage that bore all three of them was half way to Queen Street that she suddenly covered him to be wearing long pantaloons tightly strapped under his shoes.

She gave a muffled shriek. "Parte! Good God, was there ever anyone more provoking? Patrick, how dare you put those things on? Oh, you must stop the carriage at once! No one - no one, do you understand? - not the Prince Regent himself! Is admitted to Almack's in pantaloons! Knee breeches, you stupid, tiresome boy! You will ruin everything. Pull the check-string this instant! We must set you down".

It was vain for Patrick to argue. He did not realize how inflexible were the rules at Almack's. He must go home and change this dress - and even that would not do if he came to Almack's one minute after eleven. He would be turned away.

Elizabeth broke into laughter, but her afflicted chaperon, bundling Patrick out into the street, assured her it was no laughing matter.

But when the two ladies at last arrived at Almack's it did not seem to Elizabeth that the club was worth all this to do. There was nothing remarkable.