when the evening began to draw in, and Lambert thought it high time to go to bed, for 'twas a pity to burn expensive candles longer than was necessary, Sir Marmaduke had astonished his secretary by telling him that he must now clean and tidy himself for they would proceed to the house of a great lady named Mistress Endicott — a friend of the ex-Queen Henrietta Maria and a lady of peculiar virtues and saintliness, who would give them vast and pleasing entertainment.
Lambert was only too ready to obey. Enjoyment came naturally to him beneath his Quaker bringing-up: his youth, good-health and pure, naturally noble intellect, all craved companionship, with its attendant pleasures and joys. He himself could not afterwards have said exactly how he had pictured in his mind the saintly lady — friend of the unhappy Queen — whom he was to meet this night.
Certainly Mistress Endicott, with her red face surmounted by masses of curls that were obviously false, since they did not match the rest of her hair, was not the ideal paragon of all the virtues, and when he was first made to greet her, a strange, unreasoning instinct seemed to draw him away from her, to warn him to fly from this noisy company, from the sight of those many faces, all unnaturally flushed, and from the sounds of those strange oaths which greeted his ears from every side.
A great wave of thankfulness came over him that, his gracious lady — innocent, tender, beautiful Lady Sue, had not come to London with her guardian. Whilst he gazed on the marvels of Westminster Hall and of old Saint Paul's he had longed that she should be near him, so that he might watch the brilliance of her eyes, and the glow of pleasure which, of a surety would have mantled in her cheeks when she was shown the beauties of the great city.
But now he was glad — very glad, that Sir Marmaduke had so sternly ordained that she should remain these few days alone at Acol in charge of Mistress Charity and of Master Busy. At the time he had chafed bitterly at his own enforced silence: he would have given all he possessed in the world for the right to warn Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse that a wolf was prowling in the fold under cover of the night. He had seen Lady Sue's eyes brighten at the dictum that she was to remain behind — they told him in eloquent language the joy she felt to be free for two days that she might meet her prince undisturbed.
But all these thoughts and fears had fled the moment Lambert found himself in the midst of these people, whom he innocently believed to be great ladies and noble gentlemen, friends of his employer Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse. It seemed to him at once as if there was something here — in this room — which he would not wish Lady Sue to see.
He was clumsy and gauche in his movements as he took the hand which Mistress Endicott extended to him, but he tried to imitate the salute which he had seen his employer give on the flat — not very clean — finger-tips of the lady.
She was exceedingly gracious to him, saying with great kindliness and a melancholy sigh:
"Ah! you come from the country, master? . . . So delightful, of a truth. . . . Milk for breakfast, eh? . . . You get up at dawn and go to bed at sunset? . . . I know country life well — though alas! duty now keeps me in town. . . . But 'tis small wonder that you look so young!"
He tried to talk to her of the country, for here she had touched on a topic which was dear to him. He knew all about the birds and beasts, the forests and the meadows, and being unused to the art of hypocritical interest, he took for real sympathy the lady's vapid exclamations of enthusiasm, with which she broke in now and again upon his flow of eloquence.
Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse, who was watching the young man with febrile keenness, had the satisfaction to note that very soon Richard began to throw off his bucolic timidity, his latent yet distinctly perceptible disapproval of the company into which he had been brought. He sought out his sister-in-law and drew her attention to Lambert in close conversation with Mrs. Endicott.
"Is everything arranged?" he asked under his breath.
"Everything," she replied.
"No trouble with our henchmen?"
"A little . . . but they are submissive now."
"What is the arrangement?"
"Persuade young Lambert to take a hand at primero . . . Endicott will do the rest."
"Who is in the know?" he queried, after a slight pause, during which he watched his unsuspecting victim with a deep frown of impatience and of hate.
"Only the Endicotts," she explained. "But do you think that he will play?" she added, casting an anxious look on her brother-in-law's face.
He nodded affirmatively.
"Yes!" he said curtly. "I can arrange that, as soon as you are ready."
She turned from him and walked to the center table. She watched the game for a while, noting that young Segrave was still the winner, and that Lord Walterton was very flushed and excited.
Then she caught Endicott's eye, and immediately lowered her lashes twice in succession.
"Ventre-saint-gris!" swore Endicott with an unmistakable British accent in the French expletive, "but I'll play no more. . . . The bank is broken . . . and I have lost too much money. Mr. Segrave there has nearly cleaned me out and still I cannot break his luck."
He rose abruptly from his chair, even as Mistress de Chavasse quietly walked away from the table.
But Lord Walterton placed a detaining, though very trembling hand, on the cinnamon-colored sleeve.
"Nay! parbleu! ye cannot go like this . . . good Master Endicott . . ." he said, speaking very thickly, "I want another round or two . . . 'pon my honor I do . . . I haven't lost nearly all I meant to lose."
"Ye cannot stop play so abruptly, master," said Segrave, whose eyes shone with an unnatural glitter, and whose cheeks were covered with a hectic flush, "ye cannot leave us all in the lurch."
"Nay, I doubt not, my young friend," quoth Endicott gruffly, "that you would wish to play all night. . . . You have won all my money and Lord Walterton's, too."
"And most of mine," added Sir Michael Isherwood ruefully.
"Why should not Master Segrave take the bank," here came in shrill accents from Mistress Endicott, who throughout her conversation with Lambert had kept a constant eye on what went on around her husband's table. "He seems the only moneyed man amongst you all," she added with a laugh, which grated most unpleasantly on Richard's ear.
"I will gladly take the bank," said Segrave eagerly.
"Pardi! I care not who hath the bank," quoth Lord Walterton, with the slow emphasis of the inebriated. "My system takes time to work. . . . And I stand to lose a good deal unless . . . hic . . . unless I win!"
"You are not where you were, when you began," commented Sir Michael grimly.
"By Gad, no! . . . hic . . . but 'tis no matter. . . . Give me time!"
"Methought I saw Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse just now," said Endicott, looking about him. "Ah! and here comes our worthy baronet," he added cheerily as Sir Marmaduke's closely cropped head — very noticeable in the crowd of periwigs — emerged from amidst the group that clustered round Mistress Endicott. "A hand at primero, sir?"
"I thank you, no!" replied Sir Marmaduke, striving to master his habitual ill-humor and to speak pleasantly. "My luck hath long since deserted me, if it e'er visited me at all. A fact of which I grow daily more doubtful."
"But ventre-saint-gris!" ejaculated Lord Walterton, who showed an inclination to become quarrelsome in his cups, "we must have someone to take Endicott's place, I cannot work my system hic . . . if so few play. . . ."
"Perhaps your young friend, Sir Marmaduke . . ." suggested Mistress Endicott, waving an embroidered handkerchief in the direction of Richard Lambert.
"No doubt! no doubt!" rejoined Sir Marmaduke, turning with kindly graciousness to his secretary. "Master Lambert, these gentlemen are requiring another hand for their game . . . I pray you join in with them. . . ."
"I would do so with pleasure, sir," replied Lambert, still unsuspecting, "but I fear me I am a complete