Lord Loveland Discovers America

								

girls to feel you were picking out the best. Oh, you would virtually
have a clear coast! And judging from novels I've read, everybody in
American society would be fighting for the honour of entertaining you,
racking their brains to get up the most wonderful spectacles for your
amusement."
"They wouldn't amuse me," said Loveland, in the blas� way he had
cultivated since he came back a wounded hero of nineteen, in the last
year of the South African war. "I should be there purely on business."
But though he spoke like a tired man of forty rather than a happy and
healthy one of twenty-six or seven, he was beginning to lean towards his
mother's advice. He could easily get long leave. He had a couple of
months due to him. During a tour of inspection in the States he would be
free from all the bills that flesh is heir to, as he would have no
settled address, until the "business" that took him over was settled.
After that, when his engagement was published in the papers, tradesmen
would hold their hands.
"It oughtn't to take you many weeks," Lady Loveland was reflecting
aloud, "if you went at the right season, and to the right place."
"The Season is different for different places over there, Betty says,"
remarked Loveland, who now, having discovered America as a spot worthy
of note on the world's map, was ready to explain it to his mother.
"How odd!" exclaimed Lady Loveland, to whom all things were odd, and
scarcely proper, if they were not as in Great Britain. "But oh, of
course, you only mean that they go to one place to shoot at a certain
time, to another to hunt at a different time, as We do----"
"Not exactly that, I think," said Val, getting out of his element. "I
believe it's something to do with the thermometer. Betty went in summer,
and was obliged to stop at Newport. One reads things about Newport."
"Yes. Though I forget what," replied his mother, dismissing Newport.
"But in the States there must be heiresses abounding in great quantities
everywhere, as all American girls appear to be rich in more or less
degrees. They flock to Europe from towns with the most extraordinary
names. I don't know why it's happened to stick in my memory, but I know
there was one--Oshkosh, or something truly awful of that sort. A young
person from there, with millions, actually millions, married the
Marquise de Merpoule's third son, if you remember, a most
unprepossessing youth, whose face looked like an accident."
"I hardly think I should have to go as far afield as Oshkosh, wherever
it may be," said Loveland, glancing at his double in the mirror--where
was reflected also the worn furnishing of his mother's drawing-room.
With a pang he saw the sorry background and forgot himself for a moment
in thinking of Loveland Castle--a very noble, dull palace, all marble,
gold plate, portraits and precedence when in its prime; echoing sadness
now, until such time as the heir might redeem it with some fair lady's