CHAPTER XXI

_Pearl Veal's Answer to the Duke of Nocastle_

The engagement of Miss Bumpschus to the Duke of Nocastle was announced in this morning's papers almost to the exclusion of all other news. There were pictures of Ethel looking like an Oriental beauty, of the little Duke, magnificent in the uniform of the Guards, of the Bumpschus house in town and the Newport villa; of Leeking Castle, the ancestral seat of the Fitznits--indeed, of everything in the lives of the high contracting parties that could be photographed. The equanimity with which Mrs. Radigan received the news was most surprising. I had expected to find her completely unstrung when I called this afternoon, but instead she was in the library, just back from a drive, and making tea.

"Isn't it absurd?" she said laughingly, pointing to the paper behind which Pearl Veal was ensconced in a deep chair, reading of the glories of the Duke and the house of Bumpschus. "They are making the best of it, I hear; have a press agent and all that; so for weeks we shall read of nothing else. It is disgusting to see people courting notoriety that way."

I thought of her own plans of last week and involuntarily raised my eyebrows in astonishment. She noticed it, but went calmly on:

"Ethel actually looks beautiful in some of those pictures--I wonder how they were made?--and as for the Duke, you might suppose he was a real dashing sort of a fellow. Won't they look well coming down the aisle together! Why, in order to take his arm she will have to walk like a camel."

Pearl's paper rattled to the floor, revealing her smiling softly, those fine eyes of hers intent upon her sister.

Mrs. Radigan understood. "Of course, my dear," she said grimly, "if you had taken him we should have avoided such an absurd picture somehow." She paused a moment, trying to think how. The inspiration came to me first.

"Sir Charles Wigge," said I, "as long as he did the proposing, he might well lead the bride down the aisle--the Duke could toddle after him."

Mrs. Radigan shuddered. She always shudders when Sir Charles is mentioned; but on my part I feel that I owe him a heavy debt, for by the time we had had him with us two days at Westbury, the suppression of the solicitor became more the ambition of Mrs. Radigan than the capture of his noble client. Pearl says frankly that she never in the world could have refused the Duke of her own accord, as a girl can't marry a nobleman every day, and real-estate agents are a drug in the market. But when Sir Charles came, when he took possession of the house and of the opinions of all its occupants, when he had utterly crushed us and made us feel our ignorance and humbleness, her future became a second thought, and the desire to turn possessed her. Pearl smiles softly as she says this. It is her inscrutable smile, and may hide something; but I care little, for she did turn.

That night when Mrs. Radigan brought Sir Charles into the smoking-room, when she tucked me under her arm and dragged me away, when I looked back and saw Pearl toss her cigarette into the fire and fix her lustrous eyes on the English solicitor, I thought all was over. Sir Charles had said that it would only take a minute to settle the whole thing; but he did not know Pearl Veal. She listened to him silently, and the proposal in behalf of the Duke of Nocastle must have been well worth hearing. Sir Charles repeated all his Grace's titles, told her the history of the ducal house of Fitznit and its glories, of its manors, halls, and bowers; of its present head and his virtues, his service in the commissary department in South Africa, and his speech in the House of Lords on the ginger-beer evil. Lastly, in a softer voice, Sir Charles spoke to Pearl of his Grace's love. He talked very nicely, too, she says, and quite affected her, quite overwhelmed her with the sense of her lowliness and the high honor his Grace had conferred in stooping to offer her his hand, when he had the proudest women in England at his feet.

"And now," said the lawyer rising, "I may tell his Grace that you will be proud to accept his offer."

Pearl rose, too, stepped to the table and picked up a bit of paper and a pencil.

"How much does he owe?" she said, chewing the rubber while she eyed the great man.

"But, my dear Miss Vial, he is a duke," protested Sir Charles. "And that little matter has been arranged by Mrs. Batigan."

"But I might like to spend my money in other ways," said Pearl.

So Sir Charles indignantly got out a note-book and gave her the figures. It was a paltry sum compared to our Wall Street failures, and he assured her that the creditors would take two shillings in the pound and be thankful for it. They seldom got more from dukes.

Pearl lighted a cigarette, and as she leaned easily against the table she watched a spire of smoke go curling away into the dark recesses of the ceiling.

"Well, Miss Vial?" said Sir Charles testily.

"I'll let you know Monday," came the quiet answer, with the quiet smile.

"But 'pon my word!" protested the great Englishman.

Pearl curled up in her chair again and began blowing smoke rings.

"He is an English duke," said Sir Charles angrily.

Pearl seemed intensely occupied watching the gray halo that was floating above her head.

"Do you realize what it means to marry a peer of England?" came again in a louder tone.

The corners of the girl's mouth turned up, just a trifle.

"Do you consider whom you are keeping waiting?" demanded the lawyer solemnly.

Pearl smiled.

That inscrutable smile proved a match for Sir Charles, and he gave up his attack, but I think he was convinced that the delay was only for the moment, and that Monday would witness the ratification of his plans. So for two days he was gloriously good-natured and overbearing, and by Monday none of us dared to raise a voice in his presence. Even Marian Speechless became as silent as the tomb. Mrs. Radigan was depressed. I have never seen her so utterly dispirited. "Oh, if we could only blow him up or something," she whispered to me after dinner on Sunday evening, when we had had an hour's discourse by Sir Charles on the unhealthy American climate and the advantages of constant drizzles.

"To-morrow," said I, "it will be over."

"Yes," said she, "thank Heaven, to-morrow it will be over, and we shall have the dear Duke to ourselves."

And on the morrow it was over. All Mrs. Radigan's dreams were shattered. All my own fears were swept away. True to her promise, Pearl Veal gave Sir Charles her answer.

"Of course," said the great English solicitor, "I shall tell his Grace that Miss Vial loves him and accepts his generous offer."

"No," said Pearl, closing one eye and scrutinizing the figures on the paper in her hand. "Tell him that I like him, Sir Charles; tell him I am deeply grateful, but I cannot afford him."

Sir Charles took down his monocle and polished it. Then he eyed her through it very hard.

"Do you realize, Miss Weal, that you are refusing a peer of England?" he said sternly.

"But I want to get a new automobile," Pearl answered quietly.

The monocle flew fiercely to the very end of its guard-string. It was a minute before the astonished Englishman found it again, for his hands were trembling violently as they beat the air in search of it. Finding the glass, he sat down and polished it very hard. Then, returning it to his eye, he inspected Pearl Veal from head to foot, being evidently convinced that he had to do with an insane person.

"Miss Willy," he said hoarsely, "am I to understand that you spurn the offer of my noble client, the Duke of Nocastle?"

"I simply can't afford him," Pearl answered. "Tell him I like him very much," was added sweetly.

Sir Charles arose and paced up and down the room, looking as though he might begin to roar at any moment.

"Beyond comprehension--utterly beyond it--incredible," he said. "It is the first time it has ever been done."

"And I feel so sorry for the Duke," put in Pearl sweetly. "He will have to marry Ethel Bumpschus."

This was the spark that set fire to the already over-heated brain of Sir Charles Wigge. He hurried from the room and called for time-tables; he called for the Duke and his boxes, his man, and a trap to get them to the station; he forgot to say good-by to his hostess, and when at last we saw him drive away, Mrs. Radigan sank into a chair and cried feelingly: "Well, anyway, we sat on him!"

They must have gone straight to the Bumpschus house and closed the deal, for we followed them to town from Westbury, and yesterday morning we knew about the engagement. In the evening they gave it to the press with the pictures. That is why Mrs. Radigan shuddered this afternoon when I mentioned Sir Charles Wigge. She stirred her tea meditatively for a very long time. Then she exclaimed: "Well, I'm glad we did sit on them!"

She talked as though she had refused the Duke, instead of cringing for days at his solicitor's feet, but I deemed it wise to let well enough alone, for I had not expected to find her in so amiable a mood after all her plans had been turned so topsy-turvy.

"You certainly did," said I, giving Pearl a sidelong glance, which was returned with interest.

"The idea of their wanting us to settle all the Duke's debts before the wedding even!" cried Mrs. Radigan with sudden indignation. "Then we should have had to give the Duke five million more, and Pearl was to fix the castle roofs and keep what was left."

"Naturally, I could not afford it," said Pearl smiling.

"Naturally," said Mrs. Radigan firmly. "But, my dear, we did not want to interfere with your happiness. We simply stood ready to buy the Duke if you cared to have him."

"A duke is a duke," said Pearl, "but they come very high."

"And when I think of Ethel Bumpschus," said Mrs. Radigan, holding the paper at arm's length and staring at the photograph of the Oriental beauty, "when I think of her, with her spectacles and her charities, her aged ticket-choppers and her taffy-colored hair, I must say I feel that his Highness got the worst of the bargain."

We dine at the Bumpschus house to-morrow evening. It will be an informal affair, of course, on account of Lent, and I am looking forward with pleasure to seeing Mrs. Radigan congratulating Ethel and wishing the Duke happiness.