The Constant Companion Read Online Free PDF Page A

seriously.
    “Come into the drawing room,” went on Lady Eleanor. “I wish to talk to you about Philip.”
    Mr. Rider followed her meekly. “Sit down,” said Lady Eleanor. “Now, Philip has just celebrated his thirty-second year and it is time he was thinking of settling down. It is time we introduced him to a suitable girl.”
    “Quite, my dear,” said her husband faintly.
    “Now, there is a young lady, a Miss Limrighton, who will be here tonight. She is just the sort of girl Philip should marry. I want you to make sure that they are introduced to each other. Also, think up some ruse to get them left alone together.”
    Mr. Rider thought of his toplofty, arrogant brother-in-law who, if the rumors were to be believed, had already a very pretty ladybird in keeping.
    “Well, you know,” he said timidly, “Philip will not listen to me, and surely you could arrange it better.”
    “Nonsense!” said his wife. “These sort of things are better handled by a man. Too pushing in a lady of my breeding. You will do it, that is all, and we shall have a comfortable coze about it after the evening is over.”
    Mr. Rider’s heart sank. His wife’s idea of a comfortable coze was to interrogate him of his doings of the day, and then tell him in her forceful manner where he had gone wrong.
    But, “Just as you say,” he bleated, and began to edge out of the room in search of his secretary.
    He ran Mr. Evans to earth behind the platform in the blue saloon. Both Mr. Rider and his secretary were weak and timorous men and found much solace in each other’s company. Mr. Rider gloomily outlined his duties for the evening, and for once found to his amazement that his secretary was prepared to take the burden from his shoulders.
    “Lord Philip Cautry has been very kind to me,” said Mr. Evans, “and has, in fact, signalled me out from time to time in order to ask me kindly how I go on. I am not afraid of him,” said Mr. Evans puffing out his thin chest, “and I would be happy to do this service for you, sir.”
    Mr. Rider looked at his secretary with dawning admiration. “But how will you get him to step aside with the sort of young female that my wife considers suitable?” he asked.
    “I shall tell him I have been commanded to do so,” said Mr. Evans. “He will be annoyed but he will do it to oblige me.”
    Mr. Rider eyed Mr. Evans doubtfully. “Very well then, Evans. I hear the carriages beginning to arrive. Do your best, man. But don’t blame me if Cautry gives you one of his set downs!”
    Constance looked out at the flickering lights of London as Lady Amelia’s carriage picked its way through the West End. She felt very tired and very apprehensive. She had come to dread Amelia’s fickle and malicious humors. A week had passed since her arrival in Manchester Square, and already her duties seemed to be more burdensome than that of an overworked lady’s maid. She had to dance constant attendance on Amelia, who treated her with sugary sweetness in public and mocked her in private. Amelia delighted in shocking her well-bred companion, and there were many of the more sordid facts of life dinned into Constance’s red ears. Amelia had also found that her companion was an expert needlewoman; and noticing how skillfully the companion had altered certain dresses of Amelia’s for her own use, Amelia had plunged into an orgy of material buying, and poor Constance seemed to spend all her spare time sewing and stitching.
    Constance enjoyed the visits to the theater or the opera the best, for in the darkness at the back of the box, she found she could catch up on some much needed sleep. The servants were frightened of Mrs. Besant and therefore treated the new companion with wary respect. She was elegantly dressed and well-fed for the first time since the death of her father, but she would gladly have changed it all for the strict rule of Maria Lamberton. On each social occasion, she had to suffer Amelia’s patronizing