The Lady from Long Acre
9781465668516
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Lady Jocelyn sighed gently and put down her cup on the tea-table. "I suppose, Tony," she said, "that when one gets to seventy-two, one's conscience begins to decay just as one's body does. I seem to like good people less and immoral and useless ones more. You are the only member of the family it gives me the faintest pleasure to see nowadays." Sir Antony Raymond Fulk Desmoleyn Conway—Conway Bart., more commonly known as Tony, nodded his head. "They are rather a stuffy lot the others, aren't they!" he answered cheerfully. "Who's been round to see you?" "Only Laura and Henry as yet." Lady Jocelyn spoke with some thankfulness. "Well, that's enough," observed Tony. "Ten minutes with either of them always makes me feel I want to do something improper." "Allowing for age and infirmity," said Lady Jocelyn, "they have a rather similar effect on me." Tony laughed. "So you have heard all about my misdeeds?" "I would hardly go as far as that. They were only here for two hours. You may smoke you know, Tony, if you want to." He lighted a cigarette. "Tell me, Aunt Fanny," he pleaded. "There is no pleasure in blackening the family name unless one hears what the family says about it." "The family," remarked Lady Jocelyn, "has a good deal to say about it. They consider that not only are you wasting your own life in the most deplorable manner, but that your methods of amusing yourself are calculated to bring a certain amount of discredit upon your more distinguished relatives. Henry attributes it chiefly to the demoralizing effect of wealth; Laura thinks that you were born with naturally low tastes." "They're both right," observed Tony placidly. "I am what Guy calls 'a menace to my order.' That's a jolly way for one's secretary to talk to one, isn't it?" "It's the only way dear Guy can talk, and after all I daresay he is telling the truth." "I am sure he is," said Tony. "Guy is quite incapable of telling anything else." He paused. "Was Henry referring to any recent atrocity?" "I think your choice of friends is what distresses him chiefly. He said that your more intimate acquaintances appear to consist of prize-fighters and chauffeurs." Tony laughed good-humouredly. "I do a bit of motor racing, you know. I suppose that's what he meant by chauffeurs. As for prize-fighters—well, somebody must have been telling him about Bugg." "About what?" inquired Lady Jocelyn mildly. "Bugg," repeated Tony. "'Tiger' Bugg. He's a youthful protégé of mine—a boxer. In about three years, when he's grown a bit, he'll be champion of England." Lady Jocelyn's good-humoured face wrinkled up into a whimsical smile. "Dear Tony," she said. "Your conversation is always so stimulating. Tell me some more about Mr. Tiger Bugg. What a name! It sounds like some kind of American butterfly." "Oh, he spells it with two g's," said Tony. "It's a very good name in the East End of London. There have been Buggs in Whitechapel for generations." "So I have always understood," replied Lady Jocelyn. "How did you come across this particular branch of the family?" "It was at a boxing club off the Stepney High Street. It's a blackguard sort of place run by a Jew named Isaacs. He gets in the East End street boys, and they fight each other for nothing in the hope that some boxing promoter will see them and give them a chance. Well, one night when I was there they put up this boy Bugg against a fellow who was big enough to eat him—a chap who knew something about the game, too. Bugg was hammered nearly silly in the first round, but he came up for the second and popped in a left hook bang on the point that put the big chap to sleep for almost ten minutes. It was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen." "It sounds delightful," said Lady Jocelyn.
