One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

One of Our Conquerors
the worshipper.
Mademoiselle had to say to herself: ‘Impossible!’ after seeing
the drift of her dear Nesta’s eyes in the wake of the colossal
English clergyman. She fed her incredulousness indignantly
on the evidence confounding it. Nataly was aware of unusual
intonations, treble-stressed, in the Bethesda and the Galilee of
Mr. Barmby on Concert evenings: as it were, the towering
wood-work of the cathedral organ in quake under emission of
its multitudinous outroar. The ‘Which?’ of the Rev. Septimus,
addressed to Nesta, when song was demanded of him; and
her ‘Either’; and his gentle hesitation, upon a gaze at her for
the directing choice, could not be unnoticed by women.
Did he know a certain thing?—and dream of urging the
suit, as an indulgent skipper of parental pages?
Such haunting interrogations were the conspirators’ daggers
out at any instant, or leaping in sheath, against Nataly’s
peace of mind. But she trusted her girl’s laughing side to
rectify any little sentimental overbalancing. She left the
ground where maternal meditations are serious, at an image
of Mr. Barmby knocking at Nesta’s heart as a lover. Was it
worth inquiry?
A feminine look was trailed across the eyes of mademoiselle,
with mention of Mr. Barmby’s name.
Mademoiselle rippled her shoulders. ‘We are at present
much enamoured of Bethesda.’
That watchfullest showing no alarm, the absurdity of the
suspicion smothered it.
Nataly had moreover to receive startling new guests:
Lady Rodwell Blachington: Mrs. Fanning, wife of the General:
young Mrs. Blathenoy, wife of the great bill-broker: ladies
of Wrensham and about. And it was a tasking of her
energies equal to the buffeting of recurrent waves on deep
sea. The ladies were eager for her entry into Lakelands. She
heard that Victor had appointed Lady Blachington’s third
son to the coveted post of clerk in the Indian house of Inchling
and Radnor. These are the deluge days when even aristocracy
will cry blessings on the man who procures a commercial
appointment for one of its younger sons offended and
rebutted by the barrier of Examinations for the Civil Service.
‘To have our Adolphus under Mr. Victor Radnor’s protection,
is a step!’ Lady Blachington said. Nataly was in an
atmosphere of hints and revealings. There were City Din-
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