LORD OF MANY SECRETS

TWENTY NINE

"Yes", said Miss Tellaro, with emphasis. "I have noticed it. Your anxiety is kept for whatever it is that you are so busy with".

"Very true", he agreed. "I am mixing snuff - an anxious business, Miss Tellaro".

She was momentarily diverted. "Snuff! Do all those jars contain snuff?"

"All of them".

She cast an amazing, rather scornful glance round the shelves. "You have made it a life study, I suppose".

"Very nearly. But these are not all for my own use. Come here".

She came reluctantly. He led her round the room, pointing out jars and bottles to her notice. "That is Spanish Bran - It is generally the most popular. This is Moucuba, a very strongly scented snuff, for flavoring only. This is Peru, a large grained snuff of a fine, though perhaps too powerful flavor. I use it merely to give tone to my mixture. In that bottle is the Regent's own mixture. It is scented with Otto of Roses. Beside it is a snuff I keep for your gender. It is called Indigo's Eye - a vile mixture, but generally liked by females. The Queen uses it". He took down the jar, and shook a little of the snuff into the palm of his hand, and held it out to her. "Try it".

An idea had occurred to her. She raised her eyes to his face. "Do many ladies use snuff, Lord Clements?"

"No, not many. Only some of the more elderly ones".

She took a pinch from his hand and sniffed it cautiously. "I don't like it very much. My father used King's Martinique".

"I keep a little is it for certain if my guests. Quite a pleasant snuff, but rather light in character".

She dusted her fingers with her handkerchief. "If a lady wished to take snuff for the purpose of being a little out of the way, which would she choose, sir?"

He smiled. "She would request either Lord Peterson or Lord Clements to put her up a special recipe to be known as Miss Tellaro's Sort".

Her eyes gleamed. "Will you do that for me?"

"I will do it for you, Miss Tellaro, if you can be trusted to treat it with care".

"What must I do?"

"You must not drench it with scent, or let it become too dry, or leave your box where it will grow cold. Good snuff is taken with the chill off. Sleep with it under your pillow, and if it needs freshening send it to me. Don't attempt anything in that way yourself. It is not easily done".

"And a snuff box to match every gown", said Miss Tellaro thoughtfully.

"By all means. But learn first how to handle your box. You cannot do better than to observe your the methods of Mr Alexandra. You will notice that he uses one hand only, the left one, and with peculiar grace".

She began to draw on her gloves again. "I shall be very much obliged to you, sir, if you will have the kindness to make me that recipe", she said. She realized how far she had drifted from the real objective of her visit, and led the conversation ruthlessly back to it. "And you will stop Parte going to gaming halls, and being for ever with this bad set of company?"

"I am quite unable to stop Parte doing either of these things, even if I wished to", replied the Earl calmly. "A little experience will not hurt him".

"I am to understand, then, that you don't choose to interest yourself in his affairs, sir?"

"There is not the least likelihood of his listening to me if I did, Miss Tellaro".

"He could be made to attend to you".

"Do not be alarmed, Miss Tellaro. When I see the need of making him listen to me, I shall do so beyond all possibility of being ignored" .

She was not satisfied, but it was obviously of no use to urge him further. She took her leave of him. He escorted her to her phaeton, and was about to go back into the house when he heard himself hailed by a couple of horsemen, who were trotting past at that moment by chance. One was Lord Alvana, whose ground, smiling face was as usual slightly powdered with the snuff that lingered on his rather fat cheeks. The other was Colonel Edmond, a much older man of very rakish mien.

It was he who had hailed Clements. "Hola, Clements, so that's the heiress, hey? Devilish fine girl!" he cried out as Miss Tellaro's phaeton disappeared down Hallows Street. "Eighty thousand, ain't it? Lucky dog, hey? Making a match of it, hey?"

"You're so crude, Colonel", complained Alvana.

"Ay, plain Georgina Halls that's me. Take care some brave boy don't snatch the lilly up from under your nose, Gabriel!"

"I will", promised the Earl, quite unmoved by this raillery.

The colonel dug the butt end of his riding whip at Lord Alvana. "There's Alvana here, for instance. Now, what do you say, Alvana? They do tell me there's more to it than the two hundred thousand if that young brother were to die. Ain't that so, Gabriel?"

"But the chances of death at nineteen are admittedly small", said the Earl.

"Oh, you never know!" said the colonel cheerfully. "Better tie her up quick, before another gets her. There's Brown, now. He could do with a rich wife, I daresay".

"If you mean Darlington Brown, I was under the impression that he came into a legacy not so long ago", replied the Earl.

"Yes", agreed Lord Alvana mournfully, "but the stupid fellow muddled the whole fortune away paying tradesmen's bills". He nodded to his companion. "Come, Colonel, are you ready?"

They rode off together, and Clements went back into his house. It seemed that the colonel had reason on his side, for within the space of four days his lordship received no less than three applications for permission to solicit Miss Tellaro's hand in marriage.