“It was just outside the Residency,” she said. “I was talking to him, when a donkey, left alone in a native vegetable cart, got its leg over the shaft and started kicking. Well!... He lifted the creature clean off the ground, got its leg back between the shafts, and then took hold of its ear and whispered into it: ‘Oh, you absurd ridiculous ass!’ It sounded quite uncanny.”
Lord Barthampton got up ponderously from his seat and came round the table to Muriel. “The music’s started again,” he said. “It’s our dance, isn’t it? Are you ready?”
Muriel rose, somewhat relieved to take her departure from the supper-table. As she did so her hostess again nudged her heavily.
“Just look at the General!” she whispered.
Kate Bindane turned round, and, catching Muriel’s eye, burst out laughing; while the General, finding his wife’s gaze fixed upon him, put his hand playfully over his face.
“Sir Henry is telling risky stories,” replied Kate.
“It’s all right, my dear,” said the General, waving his hand to his wife. “It’s only the one about the little boy and the Sunday school teacher.”
Lady Smith-Evered laughed huskily. “I’m glad it’s no worse,” she declared. “Henry, you must behave yourself.”
“She’s egging me on,” he replied, slapping his thigh.
“Now then, now then!” exclaimed Kate, “none o’ your sauce.”
Muriel put her hand on Lord Barthampton’s arm, and turned away. She was feeling an indefinable sense of disgust; and she was glad to merge once more into the revolving mass of dancers, and to allow the brazen music to beat the thoughts out of her brain. Her partner did not speak. He was turning over in his mind the possibilities of future happiness, and the effort absorbed his attention, so that his dancing, never of a high standard, became atrocious.
The only solution of his perplexing problem was for him to marry a rich wife: then, if Daniel were to reveal the secret of his birth, he would not suffer a knock-out blow. He would lose his title and the fortune which went with it, but he would have refeathered his nest, and all would be well. And the partner with whom he was now dancing was an heiress, and a jolly fine girl into the bargain.
He was making praiseworthy efforts to check the downward course of his career, and ever since his interview with his cousin, he had been on the water-waggon; but, even though his reform were complete, was Daniel to be trusted not to dispossess him? He doubted it: the temptation would be too great. What a dirty trick his father had played him! But he wasn’t so easily floored: he would obtain another fortune by marriage, and then he could tell Cousin Daniel to go to hell.