Marjorie Bowen

“ Thereupon Miss O'Farrell continued: "By your flight to the country you made it clear that this fantastic match was as little to your liking as to mine."
My Lord contrived an answer now. "I wish to free you, ma'am, of the plague of my Lady's intrigue."
She smiled delightedly. "I knew it, surely. You would never be the one, I can see by your good-natured face, to interfere with a poor girl's happiness." ”

“ But he respected her as a foe. He knew that she was dangerous; he had seen friends of his fall victims to her wiles, he had witnessed many a marriage of her making, and his reckless idea of a move to Garth was largely the idea of retreat.
He rather flinched before facing it out with his mother and Nellie O'Farrell during the whole of the London season—he knew my Lady too well. Discretion, he thought, was the better part. But he maintained his jaunty demeanour.
"I know you are a wonderful match-maker, ma'am," he said, "but this time you will fail." ”

“ She hasn't written anything to me, and I think she is planning something, ma'am."
"Of course she is,"
"Well, it won't do, ma'am, and please tell her so when you write."
Lady Margaret folded her hands on her ebony stick and glared at the young man. "And why won't it do, Tremaine?"
"Because nothing will make me marry the girl."
"And I am sure I do not know why, Tremaine, for all I have heard she is a good girl, and a pretty girl," and a swingeing fortune. La, what you young men do expect nowadays!" ”

“ One day my Lord rode out of Garth House and across the fields of Garth, and paid a visit to his nearest neighbour. Lady Margaret Wynd, who was very old, very calm, and had not been to town since the days of Charles II.
She received the young man's visit with her usual serenity. "What are you doing here at this time of the year, Tremaine?" she asked.
"I have fallen out with my Lady."
"So I supposed."
"Seriously."
"Indeed?" the old lady seemed highly amused. "And what about, pray?"
"About Miss O'Farrell."
"The Miss O'Farrell you are going to marry?" asked Lady Margaret. ”

“ He frowned. After all, he was not such a miserable match. And the minx had known how to coquette. Why had she, on her side, allowed this mock betrothal to stand? He asked her.
"Ah, well," she said frankly, "it kept the others at a safe distance, and was a useful thing, surely."
His own motive exactly, yet he was annoyed.
"Now have I vexed you," cried Miss O'Farrell, "for it is vexed you are looking."
He rose. "How can I help you, ma'am?"
"Why, you can tell my Lady to leave us alone, sir."
"I have already done so," he blurted out.
"You have!" she cried joyously. ”

“ Her slender figure, her delicately poised head, the great blue-grey eyes, the short exquisite features, the pale creamy skin, the cloudy black hair, the superb air of grace and dignity combined to make a creature rare indeed. ”

“ My Lady, perceiving this, rose in wrath.
"You certainly are not worthy of poor Nellie's devotion," she exclaimed. "Here the dear child has been treasuring a lock of your hair and your picture in little——"
This finally disgusted my Lord. ”

“ It gave a piquancy to his attentions to other ladies, it preserved him from the onslaughts of match-makers, it gilded him with a certain romance—in brief, it was a convenient tradition that he should marry Nellie O'Farrell, and as such he had fostered it, believing that it would, in due course, die a natural death through the lady's or his own marriage with someone else. ”

“ My Lord moved impatiently.
"Cannot you find some yet earlier infatuation, ma'am—some infant at whom I cooed and smiled when 1 was in swaddling-clothes?"
My Lady changed her tactics. "This marriage has always been taken for granted. You put the poor girl in an odious position."
But my Lord was light-hearted over that aspect of the case. "Miss O'Farrell will be as glad as I to have done with this boy and girl affair."
"You make a mistake. You forget she writes to me continually." ”