The Quiet Gentleman Read Online Free PDF Page B

little more careful. When I have shown you how matters stand, I hope you may be persuaded to take up your residence here. It will not do to leave Stanyon masterless, you know.’
    ‘Stanyon has a very good master in you, I fancy.’
    ‘Nonsense! I am nothing but your agent.’
    ‘But I should find it a dead bore!’ objected Gervase. ‘Only consider the dreadful evening I have spent already! I have not the remotest guess where Martin went to, but I am sure he was not to be blamed for his flight. I wish I had had the courage to follow his example! And who, pray, is that little squab of a female? Was she invited for my entertainment? Don’t tell me she is an heiress! I could not – no, I really could not be expected to pay my addresses to anyone with so little countenance or conversation!’
    ‘Drusilla! No, no, nothing of that sort!’ smiled Theo. ‘I fancy my aunt thinks she would make a very suitable wife for me!’
    ‘My poor Theo!’
    ‘Oh, she is a very good sort of a girl, after all! But my tastes do not run in that direction. She is a guest at Stanyon merely while her parents are visiting in the north. They live at Gilbourne: in fact, they are your tenants. Her ladyship has a kindness for Drusilla, which is not wonderful, for she is always very obliging, and her lack of countenance, as you have it, makes it in the highest degree unlikely that she will ever be a danger to Lady St Erth’s schemes for Martin.’ He rose from his chair, and added, glancing down at the Earl: ‘We can offer you better entertainment, I hope! There is the hunting, remember, and your coverts should afford you excellent sport.’
    ‘My dear Theo, I may have been abroad for a few years, but I was reared in England, you know!’ expostulated Gervase. ‘If you will tell me what I am to hunt, or shoot, at this moment – !’
    Theo laughed. ‘Wood-pigeons!’
    ‘Yes, and rabbits. I thank you!’
    ‘Well, you will go to London for the Season, I daresay.’
    ‘You may say so with the fullest confidence.’
    ‘I see it is useless for me to waste my eloquence upon you. Only remain at Stanyon for long enough to understand in what case you stand, and I must be satisfied! Tomorrow, I give you warning, I shall make you attend to business. I won’t tease you any more tonight, however. Sleep sound!’
    ‘I hope I may, but I fear my surroundings may give me a nightmare. Where are you quartered, Theo?’
    ‘Oh, in the Tower! It has come to be considered my particular domain. My bedchamber is above the muniment room, you know.’
    ‘A day’s march to reach you! It must be devilish uncomfortable!’
    ‘On the contrary, it suits me very well. I am able to fancy myself in a house of my own, and can enter the Tower by the door into the Chapel Court, if I choose, and so escape being commanded to furnish my aunt with the details of where I have been, or where I am going!’
    ‘Good God! Will it be my fate to endure such examinations?’
    ‘My aunt,’ said Theo, with a lurking twinkle, ‘likes to know all that one does, and why one does it.’
    ‘You terrify me! I shall certainly not remain at Stanyon above a week!’
    But his cousin only smiled, and shook his head, and left him to ring for his valet.
    When the man came, he brought with him a can of hot water, and a warming-pan. The Earl, staring at this, said: ‘Now, what in thunder are you about?’
    ‘It appears, my lord,’ responded Turvey, in a voice carefully devoid of expression, ‘that extremely early hours are kept in this house – or, as I apprehend I should say, Castle. The servants have already gone to bed, and your lordship would hardly desire to get between cold sheets.’
    ‘Thank you, my constitution is really not so sickly as you must think it! Next you will bring me laudanum, as a composer! Set the thing down in the hearth, and don’t be so foolish again, if you please! Have they housed you comfortably?’
    ‘I make no complaint, my lord. I collect that the Castle