The Quiet Gentleman

Here he was received with much respect and curiosity, nearly every groom and stableboy finding an occasion to come into the yard, and to steal a look at him, where he stood chatting to the old coachman. On the whole, he was approved. He was plainly not a neck-or-nothing young blood of the Fancy, like his half-brother; he was a quiet gentleman, like his cousin, who was a very good rider to hounds; and if the team of lengthy, short-legged bits of blood-and-bone he had brought to Stanyon had been of his own choosing, he knew one end of a horse from another. He might take a rattling toss or two at the bullfinches of Ashby Pastures, but it seemed likely that he would turn out in prime style, and possible that he would prove himself to be a true cut of Leicestershire.

He found his head-groom, Sam Chard, late of the 7th Hussars, brushing the dried mud from the legs of his horse, Cloud. Chard straightened himself, and grinned at him, sketching a salute. " 'Morning, me lord!"

"You found your way here safely," commented the Earl, passing a hand down Cloud's neck.

"All right and tight, me lord. Racked up for the night at Grantham, according to orders."

"No trouble here?"

"Not to say trouble, me lord, barring a bit of an escara-muza with the Honourable Martin's man, him not seeming to understand his position, and passing a remark about redcoats, which I daresay he done by way of ignorance. Redcoats! The Saucy Seventh! But no bones broken, me lord, and I will say he didn't display so bad."

"Chard, I will have no fighting here!"

"Fighting, me lord?" said his henchman, shocked. "Lor", no. Nothing but a bit of cross-and-jostle work, with a muzzier to finish it! Everything very nice and abrigado now, me lord. You're looking at that bay: a rum 'un to look at, but I daresay he's the devil to go. One of his Honourable Martin's, and by what they tell me he's a regular dash: quite the out-and-outer! Would he be a relation of your lordship's?"

"My half-brother—and see that you are civil to him!"

"Civil as a nun's hen, me lord!" Chard responded promptly. "They do think a lot of him here, seemingly." He applied himself to one of the gray's fore-legs. "Call him the young master." He shot a look up at the Earl. "Very natural, I'm sure—the way things have been." Before the Earl could speak, he continued cheerfully: "Now, that well-mixed roan, in the third stall, me lord, he belongs to Mr. Theo, which I understand is another of your lordship's family. A niceish hack, ain't he? And a very nice gentleman, too, according to what I hear. Yes, me lord, on the whole, and naming no exceptions, I think we can say that the natives are bien dispuesto!"

The Earl thought it prudent to return an indifferent answer. It was apparent to him that his groom was already, after only a few hours spent at Stanyon, fully conversant with the state of affairs there. He reflected that Martin's feelings must be bitter indeed to have communicated themselves to the servants; and it was in a mood of slight pensiveness that he strolled back to the Castle.

Here he was met by Miss Morville, who said, rather surprisingly, that she had been trying to find him.

"Indeed!" Gervase said, raising his brows. "May I know in what way I can serve you, Miss Morville?"

She coloured, for his tone was not cordial, but her disconcertingly candid gaze did not waver from his face. "I shouldn't think you could serve me at all, sir," she said. "I am only desirous of serving Lady St. Erth, which, perhaps, I should have made plain to you at the outset, for I can see that you think I have been guilty of presumption!"

It was now his turn to redden. He said: "I assure you, ma'am, you are mistaken!"

"Well, I don't suppose that I am, for I expect you are used to be toad-eaten, on account of your high rank," replied Drusilla frankly. "I should have explained to you that I have no very great opinion of Earls."

Rising nobly to the occasion, he replied with scarcely a moment's hesitation: "Yes, I think you should have explained that!"

"You see, I am the daughter of Hervey Morville," disclosed Drusilla. She added, with all the air of one throwing in a doubler: "And of Cordelia Consett!"

The Earl could think of nothing better to say than that he was a little acquainted with a Sir James Morville, who was a member of White's Club.

"My uncle," acknowledged Drusilla. "He is a very worthy man, but not, of course, the equal of my Papa!"

"Of course not!" agreed Gervase.

"I daresay," said Drusilla kindly, "that, from the circumstance of your military occupation, you have not had the leisure to read any of Papa's works, so I should tell you that he is a Philosophical Historian. He is at the moment engaged in writing a History of the French Revolution."

"From a Republican point-of-view, I collect?"