The Guinea Stamp by Alice Chetwynd Ley Read Free Book Online

read the letter, and passed it on to Lady Lodge. “You would call him Algernon, ma’am, although he insisted that he was never called so at home. He became quite heated on the subject, and it ended by —” her voice tailed off.
    “By my having the gardener thrash him soundly,” concluded her grandmother. “Algernon he was baptised by that foolish mother of his, and Algernon he remains, as far as I am concerned!”
    Miss Feniton fell silent. She was recalling how she had concealed a portion of game pie in the pocket of her apron so that it might be smuggled in by a sympathetic nurse to the defiant, dry-eyed small boy. The incident must have made a strong impact upon her, she thought with surprise, for at that time she had been only five years old herself.
    “It is a vastly polite letter,” said Kitty, having received it from her Mama. “Can you recollect what he was like, Jo?”
    Miss Feniton was obliged to shake her head. In spite of the sharpness of that one memory, her other recollections of Lord Cholcombe’s heir were faint and confused.
    “My dear Kit, all small boys are much alike,” she said, with a light laugh. “They are all noisy, boisterous, and slightly contemptuous of the opposite sex. I make no doubt that he was just the same as the rest of his species.”
    “But what were his looks, I mean?” persisted Kitty. “Would you say he was a handsome child? Was he fair, for instance—or dark?”
    This question produced some conflicting replies. Miss Feniton settled for fair hair, while Lady Feniton was positive that it had been brown.
    “It was not a face you remember,” finished the dowager. “Not like Geoffrey’s, for instance, which made an indelible impression wherever he went. Still, one can’t have everything: his father is a Viscount, and may any day succeed to the Earldom. Such a prospect could atone for any want of looks in Joanna’s future husband.”
    “There is quite a firm understanding, then?” asked Lady Lodge.
    “Firm as the Bank of England! Geoffrey wished it from the moment that Joanna was born, and Cholcombe was just as decided. They were great friends, as you most likely know, before Geoffrey’s marriage. He used to spend a vast deal of time in Town in those days. We quite expected—but never mind that, now!”
    Miss Feniton knew the meaning of this veiled remark. At one time, it had been supposed that her father would marry Lord Cholcombe’s sister. It was another instance of the many half uttered slights upon her mother’s memory. They had little real meaning for her, as she could not remember her parents: but they were not without a certain effect of which she was not completely conscious. If the mother had been such a disappointment, might not the child be so, too?
    “It is a very pretty-spoken letter,” approved Lady Lodge. “When is Mr. Cholcombe expected at Shalbeare House?”
    “In rather less than a fortnight from now,” answered Lady Feniton. “I have been thinking, Letitia—why do you not all come back with us when we return? Feniton is poor company for anyone, as who should know better than myself! Besides, it will look less particular if we have a party staying when Algernon makes his visit. I will ask Mr. Dorlais, too, Catherine, so you need not look so downcast,” she added, glancing at Kitty’s tell-tale face. “He should make a most suitable companion for Algernon, being much about the same age.”
    “Oh, thank you, Lady Feniton!” exclaimed Kitty, in delight. “Indeed, I feared it would be so dull when you are all gone home! You will say yes, won’t you, Mama?”
    Lady Lodge, who was a very different calibre from her guest, assented at once, though with the proviso that “we must ask Papa, of course.”
    “Oh, he will agree, I feel sure!” said Kitty, secure in her power over both her parents. She smoothed the chestnut Titus crop which gave her such an elfin appearance, and turned her dark blue eyes solemnly upon Miss Feniton as a