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She was many times solicited to dance, but smilingly refused to stand up with even a gallant old friend, who might well have been her father. 'No, no, General!' she said, twinkling up at him. 'Chaperons don't dance!'
'Chaperon? You?' he said. 'Moonshine! I know to a day how old you are, puss, so don't talk flummery to me!'
'Next you will say that you dandled me when I was an infant!' she murmured.
'At all events, I might have done so. Now, come, Annis! You can't refuse to stand up with such an old friend as I am! Damme, I knew your father!'
'I should like very much to stand up with you, but you must excuse me! You may think it absurd, but I am being a chaperon tonight, and if I were to stand up with you how could I refuse to stand up with anyone else?'
'No difficulty about that!' he said. 'You have only to say that you stood up with me because you didn't care to offend an old man!'
'Yes, no doubt I could if you weren't well known to be the wickedest flirt in Bath!' she retorted.
This pleased him so much that he chuckled, threw out his chest a little, apostrophized her as a saucy minx, and went off to dally with all the best looking women in the room.
Miss Wychwood enjoyed dancing, but she was not tempted to take the floor on this occasion. There was no one with whom she wished to dance; but no sooner had she realized this truth than a question posed itself in her mind: if Mr Carleton, instead of leaving the party in something remarkably like a dudgeon, had stayed, and had invited her to dance a waltz with him, would she have been tempted to consent? She was forced to admit to herself that she would have been very strongly tempted, but she hoped (rather doubtfully) that she would have had enough strength of mind to have resisted temptation.
In the middle of these ruminations, Lord Beckenham came up, and sat down beside her, saying: 'May I bear you company, dear Miss Annis? I do not ask you to dance, for I k
now you don't mean to dance this evening. I cannot help being glad of it: it gives me the opportunity to enjoy a comfortable cose with you, and – to own the truth – I don't care for the waltz. I am aware that it is the height of à la modality, but it never seems to me to be quite the thing. You will say I am oldfashioned, I fear!'
'Quite Gothic!' she answered flatly. 'Excessively uncivil, too, when you must know that I delight in waltzing!'
'Oh, I intended no incivility!' he assured her. 'You lend distinction to everything you do!'
'For goodness' sake, Beckenham, stop throwing the hatchet at me!' she said tartly.
He gave an indulgent laugh. 'What an odd expression to hear on your lips! I myself am not familiar with modern slang, but I hear a great deal of it from Harry – more, indeed, than I like! – and I understand throwing the hatchet means to flatter a person, which, I promise you, I was not doing! Nor am I doing so when I tell you that I have rarely seen you look more beautiful than you do tonight.' He laughed again, and, laying his hand over hers, gave it a slight squeeze. 'There, don't eat me! Your dislike of receiving compliments is well known to me, and is what one so particularly likes in you, but my feelings overcame my prudence for once!'
She drew her hand away, saying: 'Excuse me! I see Mrs Wendlebury is about to take her leave.'
She got up, and moved across the room towards this formidable dame, and, having said goodbye to her, responded to a signal from Mrs Mandeville, and went to sit beside her.
'Well, my dear, a very pleasant party!' said Mrs Mandeville. 'I congratulate you!'
'Thank you, ma'am!' Annis said gratefully. 'From you that is praise of a high order! May I also thank you for having been kind enough to honour me with your presence tonight? I assure you I appreciate it, and can only hope you haven't been bored to death!'
'On the contrary, I've been vastly amused!' replied the old lady, with a chuckle. 'What made Carleton take himself off in a rage?'
Annis coloured faintly. 'Was he in a rage? I thought him merely bored.'
'No, no, he wasn't bored, my dear! It looked to me as though he and you were at outs!'
'Oh, we come to cuffs whenever we meet!' Annis said lightly.
'Yes, he makes a lot of enemies with that bitter tongue of his,' nodded Mrs Mandeville. 'Spoilt, of course! Too many caps have been set at him! My second son is a friend of his, and he told me years ago that it was no wonder he'd been soured, with half the mamas and their daughters on the scramble for him. That's the worst of coming into the world as rich as a Nabob: it ain't good for young men to be too full of juice. However, I don't despair of him, for there's nothing much amiss with him that marriage to the woman he falls in love with won't cure.'
'I haven't understood that love was lacking in his life, ma'am!'
'Lord, child, I'm not talking of his bits of muslin,' said Mrs Mandeville scornfully. 'It ain't love a man feels for the lightskirts he entertains! Myself, I'd always a soft corner for a rake, and it's my belief most women have! Mind you, I don't mean the sort of ramshackle who gives some gal a slip on the shoulder, for them I can't abide! Carleton ain't one of those sneaking rascals. Has he put you in charge of that pretty little niece of his?'
'No, no! She is merely staying with me for a short time, before going to live with one of her aunts, or cousins – I am not perfectly sure which!'
'I'm glad to hear it. You're a deal too young to be burdened with a gal of her age, my dear!'
'So Mr Carleton thinks! Only he goes further than you, ma'am, and doesn't scruple to inform me that he considers me to be quite unfit to take care of Lucilla.'
'Yes, I'm told he can be very uncivil,' nodded Mrs Mandeville.
