“I know about him. He stayed with some friends of mine in New York. He is on his way to take possession of some property left him by a distant relative: it will make him quite a rich man.”
Miss Marsden, who was sitting beyond Nina, made no remark; and the latter again took up the thread of conversation. “Did he get the news while he was in America?”
“Yes, by cablegram. He is in an English regiment of the line. I dare say he will leave it and devote himself to taking care of his money.”
“He is rather agreeable to talk to,” drawled Nina.
Mrs. Grayley’s inane face enlivened itself. “You are not doing the poor fellow justice with your faint praise. My friends whom he visited--the Dunmoor-Marleys, of New York--said that his aunt, old Lady Glenville, who lives in Park Lane, London, actually bows down and worships him. She is a fine old lady, regular English type; rides horseback like a girl. She brought him up; his parents are dead. Her husband is an admiral, old Admiral Glenville. I dare say you have heard of him, Miss Marsden,” and she leaned across Nina to look at Nina’s silent companion.
“No, I have not,” said that young lady, calmly.
“Well, you will if you go to London and go into society. He is as lively as his wife.”
“Captain Eversleigh will make a good husband for some girl,” said Nina, with a matronly air.
Nina had not found out what she wished to know, so she asked, point-blank, “Is he engaged?”
“No; the Dunmoor-Marleys said that he nearly breaks poor old Lady Glenville’s heart. She invites all the nice girls she knows to her house, hoping he will fall in love with one of them; and he tells her they are all charming, but not half as charming as she is. Now what can you do with a man like that? Many a girl has gone wild over him, plain-looking as he is; but he has never yet taken interest enough in a woman even to hint that he would like to marry her.”
Nina threw Miss Marsden a significant glance, and developed such a strong tendency to laugh that the young lady said, hastily: “I should not think that he would be very much sought after if he had only his captain’s pay.”
“But you don’t understand,” exclaimed Mrs. Grayley. “The Glenvilles are to leave him their money. He has always been a most eligible _parti_.”