‘It’s very obliging of you, but when I asked for your help I didn’t mean that I wished to hang on your sleeve, cousin! What’s more, I won’t do it!’
‘In that case I must strive to remember the exact sum I’ve disbursed on your behalf today,’ he said. ‘I wonder why I didn’t think to keep a tally? Now, let me see! There were four tickets for the maze – oh, we paid to enter the palace, too, didn’t we? Then that comes to –’
‘I wish you will be serious!’ she interrupted, biting a quivering lip.
‘I am being very serious. Generous, too, for I don’t mean to charge you carriage-hire.’
‘Oh, don’t be absurd!’ she said indignantly. ‘There is a great deal of difference between allowing you to discharge my debts, and paying you for our entertainment when you have invited us to drive out with you to Hampton Court!’
‘Certainly, but I didn’t do so,’ he said. ‘My services were bespoken by Charis.’
She gave a gasp. ‘Why, what a – a clanker!’ she exclaimed, most improperly. ‘You know she would never have thought of such a thing if you hadn’t asked her where she would like to go!’
‘Well, if you call that an invitation to drive out with me to Hampton Court, bringing her sister, and both her brothers – !’
‘Odious, odious creature!’ she said, trying not to laugh. ‘Very well, I’ll say no more. Not even thank-you! Or should I beg your pardon for having foisted myself and my brothers upon you today?’
‘On the contrary! If you had cried off, I should have recalled a pressing engagement elsewhere. Charis is a most amiable girl, but not precisely needle-witted. I find it extremely difficult to converse with her – quite exhausting, in fact! She asks me what I mean, when I venture on a mild joke.’
She could not repress one of her involuntary gurgles, but she said, in swift defence of her sister: ‘She may not be needle-witted, but she has a great deal of commonsense, I assure you! Much more than I have, for she knows how to hold household, besides sewing exquisitely, and being able to dress a joint, and – oh, all manner of useful things!’
&nb
sp; ‘Unfortunately, none of these virtues is called for when driving in the park.’
‘She is certainly not a prattle-box!’ retorted Frederica.
He laughed. ‘No, indeed!’
‘I thought gentlemen did not care for females whose tongues ran on wheels!’ she said.
‘True, but between gabblemongering, and casting the whole burden of maintaining conversation upon one’s companion, there is a happy medium to be struck. No, no, don’t rip up! I will allow Charis to be a beauty beyond compare, besides being amiable, and virtuous! But –’ He paused, a crease between his brows.
‘Well?’ she demanded.
He raised his eyes from frowning contemplation of the gloves he held in one hand, and turned his head to look at her. He said, with unwonted gentleness: ‘My child, does it never occur to you that the future you have planned for her is not what she would herself choose?’
‘No, how could that be? If I were scheming for what you would call a brilliant match – but I’m not! I promise you I’m not! I only wish to see her comfortably established: not to be obliged to make and scrape, but to be able to command the – the elegancies of life!’ She saw his brows lift, and added: ‘You think such considerations don’t signify, perhaps. Recollect that you have never known what it means to be purse-pinched!’
‘I haven’t,’ he admitted. ‘I must bow to your better knowledge of your sister, but from the little I have observed I should have said that she would find more happiness in holding household than in cutting a dash. She told me, you know, that she preferred country balls to London ones.’
‘Good gracious, did she?’ Frederica exclaimed, quite astonished. ‘She must have been funning! Only think of her success! The bouquets that are sent her! The way our knocker is never quiet! Oh, you must be mistaken, cousin!’
He saw she was looking distressed, and replied lightly: ‘Very possibly. In any event, I see no reason why you should fall into dejection.’
‘But if she doesn’t care for those things – doesn’t wish to make a creditable marriage – I shall have done it all for nothing!’ she pointed out.
‘Nonsense! You at least are enjoying London life.’
‘That doesn’t signify!’ she said impatiently. ‘As though I should have dreamt of dragging the boys to London to gratify my own wishes!’
‘I daresay Jessamy would have preferred to have remained at home, but it won’t hurt him to see something of the world. As for Felix, he’s as happy as a grig! I’m a little curious, however, to know what it was that made you think that Charis shares your own tastes.’
She shook her head. ‘I didn’t think that. Only that it was shameful to keep her hidden away, or to allow her to marry young Rushbury, or any of the other men of our acquaintance, before she had had a season.’ She hesitated, and then said rather shyly: ‘The thing is, you see, that she is so very persuadable! She is much inclined to agree to whatever is suggested to her, and although her principles are firm, her disposition is so yielding that I own it does sometimes sink my spirits!’
‘I imagine it might – if she yields to the importunities of every callow youth who dangles after her! Does she fall in love with them?’
‘I don’t think she falls in love with anyone,’ replied Frederica candidly. ‘I mean, not more with one than with another! She is a most affectionate girl, and so kind-hearted that it is enough to cast anyone into high fidgets!’