hly. He had, he continued, promised Hickson of the Fourth Estate, that
he would, before leaving the place, do his utmost to revive the ancient
glories of Bath: Bath had once set the fashion to the kingdom; why not
again? I might have asked him, why at all, or why at his expense; but his
lead was irresistible. Captain DeWitt and his valet, and I, and a score
of ladies, scores of tradesmen, were rushing, reluctant or not, on a
torrent. My part was to show that I was an athlete, and primarily that I
could fence and shoot. 'It will do no harm to let it be known,' said
DeWitt. He sat writing letters incessantly. My father made the tour of
his fair stewardesses from noon to three, after receiving in audience his
jewellers, linen-drapers, carpenters, confectioners, from nine in the
morning till twelve. At three o'clock business ceased. Workmen then
applying to him for instructions were despatched to the bar of the hotel,
bearing the recommendation to the barmaid not to supply them refreshment
if they had ever in their lives been seen drunk. At four he dressed for
afternoon parade. Nor could his enemy have said that he was not 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 ne