One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
‘And I, Captain Dartrey, when do I go back to them?’
‘Your mother comes down to consult with you. And now,
do we ride together?’
‘You are free?’
‘My uncle, Lord Clan, lets me out.’
‘To-day?’
‘Why, yes!’
‘This morning?’
‘In an hour’s time.’
‘I will be ready.’
Nesta sent a line of excuse to Mrs. Marsett, throwing in a
fervent adjective for balm.
That fair person rode out with the troop under conduct of
the hallowing squire of the stables, and passed by Nesta on
horseback beside Dartrey Fenellan at the steps of a huge hotel;
issuing from which, pretty Mrs. Blathenoy was about to
mount. Mrs. Marsett looked ahead and coloured, but she
could not restrain one look at Nesta, that embraced her cavalier.
Nesta waved hand to her, and nodded. Mrs. Marsett
withdrew her eyes; her doing so, silent though it was, resembled
the drag back to sea of the shingle-wave below her,
such a screaming of tattle she heard in the questions discernible
through the attitude of the cavalier and of the lady, who
paused to stare, before the leap up in the saddle. ‘Who is
she?—what is she?—how did you know her?—where does
she come from?—wears her hat on her brows!—huge gauntlets
out of style!—shady! shady! shady!’ And as always during
her nervous tumults, the name of Worrell made diapason
of that execrable uproar. Her hat on her brows had an air
of dash, defying a world it could win, as Ned well knew. But
she scanned her gauntlets disapprovingly. This town, we are
glad to think, has a bright repute for glove-shops. And Mrs.
Marsett could applaud herself for sparing Ned’s money; she
had mended her gloves, if they were in the fashion.—But
how does the money come? Hark at that lady and that gentleman
questioning Miss Radnor of everything, everything in
the world about her! Not a word do they get from Miss
Radnor. And it makes them the more inquisitive. Idle rich
people, comfortably fenced round, are so inquisitive! And
Mrs. Marsett, loving Nesta for the notice of her, maddened
by the sting of tongues it was causing, heard the wash of the
beach, without consciousness of analogies, but with a body
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