She had thought that at the end of the day her Corinthian should like to relax and watch his wife perform Desdemona’s death scene.
“Do you, yourself, enjoy the theater, Lady Cordelia?”
“Goodness, yes,” she said, unable to resist speaking on her favorite subject. “In fact, I find acting to be almost in my blood. I have recently been invited to join Lady Rawley’s acting troupe.”
“Ah, the theatrical she puts on every year,” Lord Hamill said. “I have never gone myself, but my father goes regularly. He says he would not miss it for the world.”
This cheered Cordelia quite a bit. Lady Rawley’s troupe had dedicated enthusiasts.
“He claims it is positively hilarious, and my sister seems to think so too,” Lord Hamill said.
“Hilarious?” Cordelia asked, not at all sure what could be hilarious about them. According to Viola, last year’s offering had beenMuch Ado about Nothing, in which Hero had murdered Claudio at the altar. Surprising? Of course. Amusing? She did not see how it could be.
“Mind you,” Lord Hamill went on, “my sister is not yet out and so has not gone herself. My father goes and then describes the thing to her and they laugh and laugh. I never know what is so funny, but she says I wouldn’t get the joke as I would not be familiar with the original play. Apparently, Lady Rawley takes shocking liberties with Shakespeare’s words.”
Everything Cordelia was hearing was most unsatisfactory. Lord Hamill was not the least interested in watching a play. Then worse, his sister was interested, only so that she could laugh at them!
But surely his sister, and his father for that matter, were misguided. Lady Rawley was so experienced in putting on her theatricals. Miss Mayton praised them to the skies. If an audience member did not perceive the true intent of a piece, then that must be laid at their own door. It spoke of a lack of understanding and finer feelings.
“I suppose your sister is also a sporting type of person?” Cordelia asked. “I suppose she is a very great rider?”
She must suppose so. It was one thing for an older gentleman to fail to be carried away by the emotion of Lady Rawley’s theatrics, but she could not find anything else to account for the lord’s sister not grasping the thing.
“Theodora?” Lord Hamill said, laughing. “You’ll not find her atop a horse when a carriage is available. She’ll happily climb in with a pile of books and then spout facts out the window at me.”
“Do you say she is an intellectual, then?” Cordelia asked, really not seeing how it could be so.
“Ido not say it, thoughsheis very free with the description,” Lord Hamill said. “She claims, and we all do think it is rubbish, she will only marry her intellectual equal.” He seemed to find great amusement in the idea.
“Someone like Lord Harveston, I suppose,” Cordelia said quietly.
“Yes! They would make a fine match,” Lord Hamill said laughing. “They might go on, both heads buried in books and never realizing there was life going on outside their doors.”
Lord Hamill shook his head sadly. “Honestly, how some people choose to live, I will never understand.”
Cordelia nodded to the statement but said nothing.
This was all most unsatisfactory. Nothing was going as it ought. She did not feel as she ought on her first night out on a ballroom floor. She did not feel as she ought, dancing with her Corinthian.
She felt prickly.
Chapter Seven
Percival had madehis way through the evening, dancing with various ladies. Some he knew, and some he had just been introduced to as they were recently arrived.
As always, his conversation attempted to uncover how a lady’s mind worked. At least, he did so with the ladies just met.
The ladies he was already acquainted with had various interests they would wish to speak about. Lady Marie wished to talk of her roses, Lady Ellen preferred guiding the conversation toward novels and possibly the weather, and of course Lady Mary had an unpleasant interest in gossip.
He was a gentleman, therefore he did his best to accommodate, though none of it was interesting to him.
With the ladies just met, he was always hopeful of uncovering an incisive mind. An educated mind. A mind that had read widely. He was certain he would come across such a lady sooner or later, though this night was not to be it.
One of them had been hardly able to answer a question and certainly had no questions of her own. How many times could a lady laugh and say, “I’m sure I do not know?” He’d been very tempted to say, “Why do you not tell me what youdoknow and we can talk about that?”
He had not, of course.
Now he was to escort Lady Cordelia to the floor. He did not know what she’d have to say for herself, but at least she was rather glorious to look at.
