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‘Oh, yes! Quite innocuous!’ he returned. ‘None more so than your paragon, whose only desire appears to be to set your sister in a frame, and hang her on the wall to provide his eyes with eternal refreshment.’
She exclaimed incredulously: ‘Set her in a frame? He can never have said so!’
‘Ask him!’
She looked disgusted. ‘Well, what a wet-goose! I never thought he could be so spiritless!’
‘No, no, a romantic, with the soul of a poet, and a high appreciation of the beautiful!’
‘I see nothing romantic in wishing to turn Charis into a picture! In fact, I am much inclined to think that you were right when you told me that he was a dull dog,’ she said, with her usual candour.
He laughed. ‘Why, yes! – but deeply reverential, I assure you! He considers Charis’s beauty to be pure and perfect, and wishes it might remain so.’
She stared at him for a frowning moment, and then said decidedly: ‘That proves he hasn’t the smallest tendre for her! How very vexatious! You know, he did seem to me to be so promising!’
His eyes gleamed, but he responded with perfect gravity: ‘You will be obliged to look about for another eligible parti. Can I be of assistance? I recall that you have come to the conclusion that a young man won’t do for Charis, and it occurs to me – Tell me, would you object to a widower?’
‘Yes, I should!’ said Frederica. ‘Furthermore, cousin, I beg you won’t concern yourself in our affairs! I never asked more of you than an introduction to the ton, and you gave us that – for which I am excessively grateful! – and I don’t expect, or wish, you to trouble yourself further! Indeed, there is not the least need!’
‘Oh, no, don’t stir coals!’ he protested. ‘Just when you’ve provided me with an interest, too!’
‘Finding widowers for Charis!’
‘That was a joke,’ he explained.
‘Not a funny one!’ she said severely.
‘I beg a thousand pardons! I won’t introduce my widower to your sister’s notice, but you may believe me when I say that you may command my services, or my advice, at any time.’
She was surprised, and for a moment suspected him of mockery. But the familiar glint was absent from his eyes; and, as she met their steady regard, he laid his hand over hers, which was resting on the banister, and clasped it strongly, saying: ‘Is it agreed? You don’t want for sense, or force of mind, but you’re not yet up to snuff, my child.’
‘No – no, I kn-know I’m not,’ she said, stammering a little. ‘Thank you! you are very good! Indeed, I can’t think whom else I could turn to, if I needed guidance – or got into a scrape! But I don’t mean to embroil you in any more scrapes, I promise you!’
She would have drawn her hand away as she spoke, but he prevented her, lifting it from the banister, and lightly kissing it. She had the oddest sensation of having suffered an electric shock; she even felt a trifle dizzy; and it was several moments after he had left her before she went back into the drawing-room. It was no longer customary for gentlemen to kiss hands; and although oldfashioned persons frequently kissed the hands of married ladies, his lordship was not oldfashioned, and she was not married. She wondered what he meant by it, and was obliged to give herself a mental shake. Probably he meant nothing at all, or was trying to get up a flirtation. By all accounts that was the sort of thing he might do, for idle amusement, because she had unwisely told him she had never been in love. This was a lowering thought – not that it signified, except that she had come to look upon him as a safe friend, and it would be very uncomfortable if she could no longer do so. If he thought she was going to figure as his latest flirt he was sadly mistaken: for one thing she had no taste for flirtation; and for another no ambition to join the ranks of his discarded flirts.
However, when she met him, three days later, in Bond Street, he showed no sign of gallantry, but greeted her with a frown, and a demand to know why she was unaccompanied. ‘I was under the impression that I warned you that in London country ways will not do, Frederica!’
‘You did!’ she retorted. ‘And although I can’t say that I paid much heed to your advice it so happens that I am accompanied today by my aunt!’
‘Who adds invisibility to her other accomplishments!’
She could not help laughing, but said as coldly as she could: ‘She is making a purchase in that shop, and is to meet me in Hookham’s Library presently. I trust you are satisfied!’
‘I am not at all satisfied. Unless you wish to appear as a fast female, you will not show yourself unattended in any of London’s fashionable lounges – least of all in Bond Street! If that is your ambition, look for another sponsor! And don’t nauseate me with fiddle-fiddle about your advanced years! You may pass in Herefordshire for a woman of sense, but here you are merely a green – a very green girl, Frederica!’
These harsh words aroused conflicting emotions in her breast. Her first impulse was to give him a sharp set-down. Such arrogance certainly deserved a set-down; on the other hand, he was quite capable of withdrawing his patronage, which, if it did not ruin her plans, would be extremely inconvenient. The thought that with his friendship she would lose all her comfort she thrust to the back of her mind. She said, achieving a respectable compromise: ‘To be sure, I am very green, for until I saw you coming towards me I didn’t know this was a fashionable lounge! I’m much obliged to you for telling me, and I can’t think how I came to be so stupid! As though I had never heard of Bond Street beaux, which of course I have! Are you – what do you call it? – on the strut?’
‘No, vixen, I am not on the strut!’ he replied, an appreciative gleam in his eye. ‘Merely on my way to Jackson’s Boxing Saloon!’
‘How horrid!’
‘That,’ said his lordship, ‘from one who lately described to me the precise significance of good science, is coming it very much too brown, Frederica!’
She laughed. ‘Well, it is horrid, for all that! How detestable of you to have encouraged me to make such a cake of myself, when I daresay you know much more about the sport than I do!’
‘I shouldn’t be surprised if I did,’ he agreed. ‘Also more about the conventions to be observed by young ladies of quality.’
‘That crow has been plucked already! How can you be so unhandsome as to go on scolding? Haven’t I owned I was at fault?’
