Page:The Tremendous Event (1922).djvu/24

 THE SUIT 23

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘You’re not frightened of the crossing?’’

She smiled. He bowed over her hand and kissed it and said no more.

Lord Bakefield, a peer of the United Kingdom, had been married first to the aforesaid great- grand-daughter of George III. and secondly to the Duchess of Faulconbridge. He was the owner, ‘in his own right or his wife’s, of country-houses, estates and town properties which enabled him to travel from Brighton to Folkestone almost with- out leaving his own domains. He was the distant player who had lingered on the links; and his fig- ure, now less remote, was appearing and disap- pearing according to the lay of the ground. Simon decided to profit by the occasion and to go to meet him.

He set out resolutely. In spite of the young girl’s warning and though he had learnt, from her and from Edward Rolleston, something of Lord Bakefield’s true character and of his prejudices, he was influenced by the memory of the cordial welcome which Isabel’s father had invariably accorded him hitherto.

This time again the grip of his hand was full of geniality. Lord Bakefield’s face—a round face,