Devil's Cub Read Online Free PDF

husband, aunt.”
    “I believe you would,” she said slowly. “But—well, never mind.” They had come to the big door that gave on to the street. The porter swung it open and stood waiting. Lady Fanny gave her hand to the Marquis, who kissed it punctiliously. “Yes,” she said. “A devil of a husband. I am sorry for your wife—or I should be if I were a man.” On which obscure utterance she departed.
    His lordship went back to the sunny room upstairs.
    “I hope you did not engage her, mon petit ?”Léonie said anxiously.
    “Far from it,” replied the Marquis. “I think—but she became profound so that I cannot be sure—that she is now glad I am not going to marry my cousin.”
    “I told her you would not. I knew you would not like it at all,” Léonie said.
    His grace surveyed her blandly. “You put yourself to unnecessary trouble, my love. I cannot conceive that Juliana, who seems to me to have more sense than one would expect to find in a child of Fanny’s, would contemplate marriage with Vidal.”
    The Marquis grinned. “As usual, sir, you are right.”
    “But I do not think so at all,” objected Léonie. “And if you are right, then I say that Juliana is a little fool, and without any sense at all.”
    “She is in love,” answered the Marquis, “with a man called Frederick.”
    “ Incroyable !”Léonie exclaimed. “Tell me all about him at once. He sounds very disagreeable.”
    The Duke looked across the room at his son. “One was led to suppose from Fanny’s somewhat incoherent discourse that the young man is impossible!”
    “Oh, quite, sir,” agreed Vidal. “But she’ll have him for all that.”
    “Well, if she loves him, I hope she will marry him,” said Léonie, with a bewildering change of front “You do not mind, do you, Monseigneur?”
    “It is not, thank God, my affair,” replied his grace. “I am not concerned with the Marlings’ futures.”
    The Marquis met his glance squarely. “Very well, sir. The point is taken.”
    Avon held out one of his very white hands towards the fire, and regarded through half-closed eyes the big emerald ring he wore. “It is not my custom,” he said smoothly, “to inquire into your affairs, but I have heard talk of a girl who is not an opera dancer.”
    The Marquis answered with perfect composure. “But not, I think, talk of my approaching nuptials.”
    “Hardly,” said his grace, with a faint lift of the brows.
    “Nor will you, sir.”
    “You relieve me,” said his grace politely. He got up, leaning lightly on his ebony cane. “Permit me to tell you, my son, that when you trifle with a girl of the bourgeoisie ,you run the risk of creating the kind of scandal I deplore.”
    A smile flickered across Vidal’s mouth. “Your pardon, sir, but do you speak from your wide experience?”
    “Naturally,” said his grace.
    “I do not believe,” said Léonie, who had been listening calmly to this interchange, “that you ever trifled with a bourgeoise ,Justin.”
    “You flatter me, child.” He looked again at his son. “I do not need your assurance that you amuse yourself only. I have no doubt that you will commit almost every indiscretion, but one you will not commit. You are, after all, my son. But I would advise you, Dominic, to amuse yourself with women of a certain class, or with your own kind, who understand how the game should be played.”
    The Marquis bowed. “You are a fount of wisdom, sir.”
    “Of worldly wisdom, yes,” said his grace. In the doorway he paused and looked back. “Ah, there was another little matter, as I remember. What kind of cattle do you keep in your stables that it must needs take you four hours to reach Newmarket?”
    The Marquis’ eye gleamed appreciation, but Léonie was inclined to be indignant. “Monseigneur, I find you fort exi-geant to-day. Four hours! ma foi ,but of a surety he will break his neck.”
    “It has been done in less,” his grace said tranquilly.
    “That I do not at all