He was a delightful, pitiless, young rascal and would
leave anything and anybody to maul me about.
I had, however, for once mistaken my billet, for while thus engaged who
should come in with his mother but Margaret?
"Aren't you afraid to trust baby with such an inexperienced nurse?" asked
Margaret, smiling at my discomfiture, for I had to lie there till I was
rescued from the young dog's clutches.
"Not at all. When he's with a baby, he becomes a baby, which is what they
want. He'll make an ideal father, don't you think?" said her ladyship
happily.
"I think he will," said Margaret in a very judicial tone, but she
coloured as she said it.
While Lady Blount disposed of baby, Margaret beckoned me aside. "Oliver,
you'll do me a favour, won't you?" she asked.
"Certainly," said I.
"As I came here in a chair, I saw the Marquess going into White's. I fear
he may be gambling again. He easily yields to the temptation, and soon
becomes reckless. Will you call in, as if by chance, and coax him out? I
would have him saved from himself, and you have great influence over him."
"If he won't come out," said I, smiling, "I'll lug him out!"
I excused myself to Lady Blount and set forth on my errand, willingly
enough, since she desired it and I liked him, but all the way I thought of
her anxious face as she asked me.
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