I should
absolutely have diddled Hounslow, if it had not been for her confounded
pretty face flitting about my stupid brain. I saw you speaking to
Guardy. You managed that business well.'
'Why, as I do all things, I flatter myself, Lucy. Do you know Lord St.
Jerome?'
'Verbally. We have exchanged monosyllables; but he is of the other set.'
'He is cursedly familiar with the little Dacre. As the friend of her
father, I think I shall interfere. Is there anything in it, think you?'
'Oh! no; she is engaged to another.'
'Engaged!' said the Duke, absolutely turning pale.
'Do you remember a Dacre at Eton?'
'A Dacre at Eton!' mused the Duke. At another time it would not have
been in his power to have recalled the stranger to his memory; but this
evening the train of association had been laid, and after struggling a
moment with his mind he had the man. 'To be sure I do: Arundel Dacre, an
odd sort of a fellow; but he was my senior.'
'Well, that is the man; a nephew of Guardy, and cousin, of course, to La
Bellissima. He inherits, you know, all the property. She will not have
a sou; but old Dacre, as you call him, has managed pretty well, and
Monsieur Arundel is to compensate for the entail by presenting him with
a grandson.
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