Regency Buck (40 page)

The Regent did not invite ladies to his dinner-parties, because there was no hostess to receive them, but they flocked to his concerts, and his receptions. Mrs. Scattergood, remembering pleasant evenings spent at the Pavilion when Mrs. FitzHerbert received guests there, shook her head, and said: “Ah, poor soul! People may say what they please, but I shall always hold that she was his true wife. And so, I hear, does the Princess of Wales, though it is an odd thing for
her
to say, to be sure!”

“Yet you would have had me accept Clarence’s offer,” remarked Miss Taverner.

“No, indeed, I would not.
That
was nothing but a notion that just entered my head. These morganatic marriages are not at all the thing, though for my part I could never find it in me to blame Mrs. FitzHerbert for marrying the Prince. He was so extremely handsome! He is a little stout now, but I shall always think of him as I first saw him, in a pink satin coat sewn with pearls, and a complexion any female would have given her eyes to possess!”

“His complexion is very sallow now,” observed Miss Taverner. “I am afraid he has a sickly constitution.”

But although Mrs. Scattergood would allow that the Regent did not enjoy the best of health, she could not be brought to see that time and self-indulgence had coarsened his features. He was the fairy-prince of her girlhood, and she would listen to nothing said in his disparagement. Miss Taverner was sorry for it, since the frequent visits to the Pavilion were not entirely to her taste. The Regent was fifty years old, but he had an eye to a pretty woman, and although there was nothing in his manner to alarm her, Miss Taverner could not be at her ease with Him. Mrs. Scattergood, whose native shrewdness was overset by the distinguishing notice the Regent bestowed on her, spoke of his attitude to her charge as fatherly, and said that Judith should consider herself honoured by his kindness. She wondered that Judith should not care to go to the Pavilion, and reminded her that Royal invitations were tantamount to commands. So Miss Taverner allowed herself to be taken there two or three times a week, until the glories of the Gallery, and the Music Room, and the Saloon became so well known to her that they no longer seemed at all out of the common. She had the treat of hearing Viotti play the violin there, and Wiepart the harp; she had been present at a very select and convivial party, when the Regent, after listening to several glees, was prevailed upon to sing
By the gaily flowing glass
,
for the edification of the company; she had been shown such objects of vertu as the tortoiseshell table in the Green Drawing-room, and the pagodas in the Saloon; and she had had the doubtful honour of receiving the advances of the Duke of Cumberland. She could not feel that the Pavilion held any further surprises for her, and when she set out with Mrs. Scattergood for Thursday’s party there, quite shocked that good lady by announcing that she had rather have been going to the ball at the Old Ship.

Upon their arrival at the Pavilion it was discovered that this was not to be one of the Regent’s musical gatherings, but a conversable evening spent in the Gallery and the over-heated Saloon. This was a big, round apartment, the centre of the suite on the eastern front of the building, surmounted by the inevitable cupola, and enlarged by two semi-circular recesses. Ruby and gold were the predominant colours, and several magnificent lustres, reflected in long pier-glasses, gave to the room an effulgence that was as remarkable as it was dazzling.

Miss Taverner looked about her to see whether any of her acquaintance were present, and had the satisfaction of observing Captain Audley in conversation with Lord Petersham, whom she had not known to be in Brighton. Captain Audley caught sight of her, and at once brought his companion over to her side. “Come now, Petersham, I insist on your showing it to Miss Taverner!” he said gaily, as Judith shook hands with his lordship. “I know she will be delighted with it. My dear Miss Taverner, this lucky fellow has got a new snuff-box, which is the prettiest I have seen these ten years!”

“Oh, Lord Petersham has all the prettiest snuff-boxes in his possession!” smiled Miss Taverner. “I have one to match each gown, but he has one for every day in the year. Do, pray, show me this new one, sir! Ah yes, it is charming indeed. Sevres, I think?”

“Yes,” acknowledged Petersham, in his gentle way. “It is a nice box for summer, but it would not do for winter wear, you know.”

“No,” said Miss Taverner seriously. “I believe you are right.”

“These niceties are beyond me,” complained the Captain. “I suppose I may as well go bury myself now you are got on to the subject of snuff together. You will be talking till midnight.”

“Oh no!” said his lordship. “To talk on any subject till midnight would be a great bore. But you put me in mind of something very important. Where is Worth? Has he put his name down for some of the Martinique snuff Fribourg and Treyer are importing?”

“He has not told me, but you may ask him yourself. He will be here later in the evening. Do not on any account look to the right, Miss Taverner! Monk Lewis is eagerly awaiting his opportunity to approach you, and once he succeeds in engaging your attention you will not be rid of him under half an hour. I never knew a man to talk so much!”

Mr. Lewis, however, the author of that celebrated novel
Ambrosia, or the Monk
,
was not one to be easily baulked of his prey. He soon button-holed Miss Taverner, and proceeded to fulfil Captain Audley’s prediction until she was rescued from him by Sir John Lade, who came up to inquire whether she had a fancy to sell her bays. She had no such fancy, nor did she care for Sir John, who smelled of the stables, and used the language of his own grooms, but she was grateful to him for interrupting the flow of Mr. Lewis’s conversation, and treated his repeated offers to buy her horses with more patience than could have been expected of her.

The temperature at which the Regent kept his rooms was always hard to bear, and by half-past eleven Miss Taverner had developed a headache, and was thinking longingly of her bed. But card tables had been set out in the Green Drawing-room, which adjoined the Saloon on the south side, and Mrs. Scattergood was happily engaged in a rubber of Casino there, and would be certain to remain for another hour. Miss Taverner wondered why her guardian did not come, and decided privately that the party was more than ordinarily insipid. She was just about to sit down on a ruby silk ottoman as far as possible from the fire when her name was spoken, and she looked up to see the Regent at her elbow.

“At last I am able to snatch two words with you!” said the Regent jovially. “I do not know how it is, but I have not had the chance to come near you all night. Now that will not do, you know! And I have something very pretty to show you, too: something which, I flatter myself, will take your fancy.”

She smiled, and returned a civil answer. A faint aroma of Maraschino hung about him, and although he was not by any means the worse for drink, she could not help suspecting that he had taken just enough to make him a little reckless.

“Yes, yes, you shall see it!” he promised. “And you shall take it away with you, too, if you care to please
me
.
But it is not here; we must slip into the Yellow Drawing-room to find it. Come, let me offer you my arm! I do not believe you have seen that room, have you? It is quite my favourite.”

“No, sir, I do not recall—But perhaps Mrs. Scattergood—”

“Oh, stuff and nonsense!” said the Regent. “Mrs. Scattergood is very well occupied, I assure you, and will not miss you. And if she did, you know, you have only to tell her you were with me, and she can have not the slightest objection.”

Miss Taverner tried to think of an excuse, and could hit upon none. She did not know what to say, for how could a mere Miss Taverner, from Yorkshire, presume to rebuff a Prince-Regent who was old enough to be her father? She ought not to go with him, and yet how was she to refuse? It would be to insult him, and that was unthinkable. She let him tuck her hand in his arm, and tried to think that the squeeze he gave it was not intentional. He led her to one of the folding-doors at the north end of the saloon, and ushered her into the Yellow Drawing-room.

“There!” he said. “Is not this a great deal better than to be trying to talk in the midst of a crowd of other people? This is my private drawing-room, not vast, you see, but exactly the sort of apartment where one can be cosy and informal.”

Miss Taverner could not help reflecting that “cosy” was not the adjective she would have used to describe the Yellow Drawing-room. Hot it certainly was, and extremely airless, but a room more than fifty feet long and over thirty feet wide, with a ceiling supported by white and gold pillars, enwreathed by serpents, and spreading into umbrella capitals hung with bells, hardly seemed to her an apartment designed for informal use. Nor could she feel that five doors panelled with plate-glass enhanced the comfort of the room. The draperies over the windows were of striped satin; there were any number of inlaid Buhl tables, bearing pieces of Asiatic porcelain; and the walls, which were white with gilt borderings, were embellished by Chinese pictures, lanterns, and flying dragons. The chairs and sofas were upholstered in blue and yellow satin, and the cabinet-maker who had constructed them had had the tasteful and original idea of placing a Chinese figure with a bell in either hand on the back of every one.

“Well, how does it strike you? Do you like it?” demanded the Regent.

“Extremely elegant! It is something quite out of the common, sir,” murmured Miss Taverner, wishing that he had not shut the door into the Saloon.

“Yes,
that
I flatter myself it certainly is,” he said with a good deal of satisfaction. “But I will tell you something, my dear: your pretty curls are precisely the colour of my gilding! Now, is not that odd? You must allow me to tell you that you make a charming picture.” He laughed at her evident confusion, and pinched her cheek. “No, no, there is no need to colour up! You do not need
me
to tell you what a little beauty you are, when you can see yourself in the mirror whichever way you turn,”

He was standing very close to her, one hand fondling her wrist, and his eyes fixed on her face in a greedy way that made her feel hotter than ever, and more than a little frightened. She pretended to be interested in the Vulliamy timepiece that stood on the mantelshelf, and moved towards the fireplace, saying: “You have so many beautiful things in the Pavilion, sir; one is continually in a state of admiration.”

“Yes, yes, I daresay, but the most beautiful thing in it only came to it an hour ago,” he replied, following her.

Regent or no, she must try to check this amorous mood. She said as lightly as she could: “You were going to show me something, sir. What can it be, I wonder? May I see it before we return to the Saloon?”

“Oh, no hurry for that!” he replied. “But you shall certainly see it, for it is your own, you know. There!” He picked up a Petitot snuff-box from one of the tables, and closed her fingers on it. “That is an odd gift for a lady, is it not? But I fancy you Eke snuff-boxes better than trinkets.”

“I do not know what to say, sir,” faltered Miss Taverner. “You are very good. I—I thank you, and assure you I shall treasure it, and—and always feel myself to have been honoured indeed.”

“Come, come, come!” said the Regent, smiling broadly. “That is not how I like to be thanked! Supposing we were to forget all this ceremony, eh?”

He was standing so close to her now that she could feel the warmth of his body. He was going to kiss her; his hand was stealing up her bare arm; his breath was on her averted cheek. His grossness, the very scent with which he lavishly sprinkled his clothes, revolted her. Her impulse was to thrust him away, and to run back into the Saloon, but she felt curiously weak, and the heat of the room was making her head spin.

His arm encircled her waist; he said caressingly: “Why, here is a shy little miss! But you must not be shy with me, must you?”

Miss Taverner had the oddest sensation of being hot and cold at once. She said in an uncertain voice: “Forgive me, sir, but the room is so close—I am afraid—I must—sit down for a moment!” She made a feeble attempt to disengage herself from his hold, and then, for the first time in her life, quietly fainted away.

She regained consciousness a minute or two later, and was aware first of feeling very sick, and then of being in strange, glittering surroundings. A peevish voice was saying loudly: “Nonsense! no such thing! She was overpowered by the heat! Most unfortunate! quite extraordinary! I never heard of such a thing. Fainting in the Pavilion! Really, it is a damned awkward situation! I would not have had it happen for the world.”

Miss Taverner recognized the voice, felt a cool hand on her brow, and shuddered uncontrollably. She gave a fluttering sob, and opened her eyes, and found herself looking straight up into her guardian’s face. She stared for a moment. “Oh, it’s you!” she murmured thankfully.

“Yes, it’s I,” Worth said in his level voice. “You will be better in a minute. Don’t try to get up.”

She groped for his hand. “Please stay. Please don’t go away and leave me here.”

His hand closed reassuringly on hers. There was a curious expression on his face, as though he was surprised at something. “There is nothing to alarm you,” he said. “I am not going away, but I want to procure you a glass of wine.”

“I don’t know how I came to fault,” she said childishly. “I have never done so before. But I did not know what to do, and—”

“You fainted from the heat,” he interposed. There was a note of finality in his voice; he did not seem to want her to say any more. He disengaged his hand and rose. “I am going to get you something to drink.”

Miss Taverner watched him walk away, and tried to marshal her wits into order. It dawned on her that she was lying at full length on a sofa in the Regent’s Yellow Drawing-room, and that the Regent himself was present, looking sulky, and very much aggrieved. She managed to sit up, and to put her feet to the ground, though her head swam unpleasantly. She now remembered with tolerable clarity the events which had preceded her swoon. How Worth came to be there she had no notion; nor could she imagine what had possessed her to cling to his hand like a frightened schoolgirl. She said, trying to speak with composure: “I must beg your pardon, sir, for being so troublesome. I have disgraced myself indeed.”