the chief voice and eye along his
line of march. His tall full figure maintained a superior air without
insolence, and there was a leaping beam in his large blue eyes, together
with the signification of movement coming to his kindly lips, such as
hardly ever failed to waken smiles of greeting. People smiled and bowed,
and forgot their curiosity, forgot even to be critical, while he was in
sight. I can say this, for I was acutely critical of their bearing; the
atmosphere of the place was never perfectly pleasing to me.

My attitude of watchful reserve, and my reputation as the heir of
immense wealth, tended possibly to constrain a certain number of the
inimical party to be ostensibly civil. Lady Wilts, who did me the honour
to patronize me almost warmly, complimented me on my manner of backing
him, as if I were the hero; but I felt his peculiar charm; she partly
admitted it, making a whimsical mouth, saying, in allusion to Miss
Penrhys, 'I, you know, am past twenty. At twenty forty is charming; at
forty twenty.'

Where I served him perhaps was in showing my resolution to protect
him: he had been insulted before my arrival. The male relatives of Miss
Penrhys did not repeat the insult; they went to Lady Wilts and groaned
over their hard luck in not having the option of fighting me. I was, in
her phrase, a new piece on the board, and checked them. Thus, if they
provoked a challenge from me, they brought the destructive odour of
powder about the headstrong creature's name. I was therefore of use to
him so far. I leaned indolently across the rails of the promenade while
she bent and chattered in his ear, and her attendant cousin and cavalier
chewed vexation in the form of a young mustachio's curl. His horse
fretted; he murmured deep notes, and his look was savage; but he was
bound to wait on her, and she would not go until it suited her pleasure.
She introduced him to me--as if conversation could be carried on between
two young men feeling themselves simply pieces on the board, one giving
check, and the other chafing under it! I need not say that I disliked
my situation. It was worse when my father took to bowing to her from a
distance, unobservant of her hand's prompt pull at the reins as soon
as she saw him. Lady Wilts had assumed the right of a woman still
possessing attractions to exert her influence with him on behalf of the
family, for I had done my best to convince her that he entertained no
serious thought of marryin