He stopped; his brave bearing vanished; he became limp and
shamefaced. Lucian, without a word, withdrew with Lydia to the
adjoining apartment, and left him staring after her with wistful
eyes and slackened jaw.
In the meantime Mrs. Hoskyn, an earnest-looking young woman, with
striking dark features and gold spectacles, was looking for Lord
Worthington, who betrayed a consciousness of guilt by attempting to
avoid her. But she cut off his retreat, and confronted him with a
steadfast gaze that compelled him to stand and answer for himself.
"Who is that gentleman whom you introduced to me? I do not recollect
his name."
"I am really awfully sorry, Mrs. Hoskyn. It was too bad of Byron.
But Webber was excessively nasty."
Mrs. Hoskyn, additionally annoyed by apologies which she had not
invited, and which put her in the ignominious position of a
complainant, replied coldly, "Mr. Byron! Thank you; I had
forgotten," and was turning away when Lydia came up to introduce
Alice, and to explain why she had entered unannounced. Lord
Worthington then returned to the subject of Cashel, hoping to
improve his credit by claiming Lydia's acquaintance with him.
"Did you hear our friend Byron's speech, Miss Carew? Very
characteristic, I thought."
"Very," said Lydia. "I hope Mrs. Hoskyn's guests are all familiar
with his style. Otherwise they must find him a little startling."
"Yes," said Mrs. Hoskyn, beginning to wonder whether Cashel could be
some well-known eccentric genius. "He is very odd. I hope Mr. Webber
is not offended."
"He is the less pleased as he was in the wrong," said Lydia.
"Intolerant refusal to listen to an opponent is a species of
violence that has no business in such a representative
nineteenth-century drawing-room as yours, Mrs. Hoskyn. There was a
fitness in rebuking it by skilled physical violence. Consider the
prodigious tact of it, too! One gentleman knocks another half-way
across a crowded room, and yet no one is scandalized."
"You see, Mrs. Hoskyn, the general verdict is 'Served him right,'"
said Lord Worthington.
"With a rider to the effect that both gentlemen displayed complete
indifference to the comfort of their hostess," said Lydia. "However,
men so rarely sacrifice their manners to their minds that it would
be a pity to blame them. You do not encourage conventionality, Mrs.
Hoskyn?"
"I encourage good manners, though certainly not conventional
manners."
"And you think there is a difference?"
"I FEEL that there is a difference," said Mrs. Hoskyn, with dignity.