Lesbia found that it was too warm to be on the deck
when there were perspiring people, whose breath must be ninety by the
thermometer, perpetually coming on board; so she and Lady Kirkbank sat
in the saloon, and had the more distinguished guests brought down to
them as to a Court; and the shrewder of the guests were quick to divine
that no company beyond that of Don Gomez de Montesma was really wanted
in that rose-scented saloon.
The Spaniard taught Lady Kirkbank _monte_, which delighted her, and
which she vowed she would introduce at her supper parties in the half
season of November, when she should be in London for a week or two, as a
bird of passage, flitting southwards. He began to teach Lesbia Spanish,
a language for which she had taken a sudden fancy; and it is curious
what tender accents, what hidden meanings even a grammar can take from
such a teacher. Spanish came easily enough to a learner who had been
thoroughly drilled in French and Italian, and who had been taught the
rudiments of Latin; so by the end of a lesson, which went on at
intervals all day, the pupil was able to lisp a passage of Don Quixote
in the sweetest Castilian, very sweet to the ear of Don Gomez--a kind of
baby language, precious as the first half-formed syllables of infancy to
mothers.
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