Her air of calm certainty struck Sophy as being so funny that she went into a peal of laughter. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon!’ she gasped. ‘But it is so ridiculous, you know!’
‘I expect it must seem so to you,’ agreed Miss Wraxton, her calm quite unimpaired. ‘I understand that a great deal of licence is permitted on the Continent to females. Here it is not so. Quite the reverse! To be thought badton, dear Miss Stanton-Lacy, would be very dreadful. I know that you will not take it amiss if I give you a hint. You will of course wish to attend the Assemblies at Almack’s, for instance. I assure you, the veriest breath of criticism to reach the ears of the patronesses, and you may say farewell to any hope of obtaining a voucher from them. Tickets may not be purchased without a voucher, you know. It is most exclusive! The rules, too, are very strict, and must not be contravened by a hairsbreadth.’
‘You terrify me,’ said Sophy. ‘Do you think I shall be blackballed?’
Miss Wraxton smiled. ‘Hardly, since you will make your début under Lady Ombersley’s aegis! She will no doubt tell you just how you should conduct yourself, if her health permits her to take you there. It is unfortunate that circumstances have prevented me from occupying that position which would have enabled me to have relieved her of such duties.’
‘Forgive me!’ interrupted Sophy, whose attention had been wandering, ‘but I think Madam de Lieven is waving to me, and it would be very uncivil not to notice her!’
She rode off as she spoke, to where a smart barouche was drawn up beside the track, and leaned down from her saddle to shake the languid hand held up to her.
‘Sophie!’ pronounced the Countess. ‘Sir Horace told me I should meet you here. You were gallopingventre à terre; never do so again! Ah, Mrs Burrell, permit me to present to you Miss Stanton-Lacy!’
The lady seated beside the Ambassador’s wife bowed slightly,and allowed her lips to relax into an infinitesimal smile. This expanded a little when she observed Miss Wraxton, following in Sophy’s wake, and she inclined her head, a great mark of condescension.
Countess Lieven nodded to Miss Wraxton, but went on talking to Sophy. ‘You are staying with Lady Ombersley. I am a little acquainted with her, and I shall call. She will spare you to me perhaps one evening. You have not seen Princess Esterhazy yet, or Lady Jersey? I shall tell them I have met you, and they will want to hear how Sir Horace does. What did I promise Sir Horace I would do? Ah, but of course! Almack’s! I will send you a voucher, ma chère Sophie, but do not gallop in Hyde Park.’ She then told her coachman to drive on, included the whole of Sophy’s party in her light, valedictory smile, and turned to continue her interrupted conversation with Mrs Drummond Burrell.
‘I was not aware that you were acquainted with the Countess Lieven,’ said Miss Wraxton.
‘Do you dislike her?’ Sophy asked, aware of the coldness in Miss Wraxton’s voice. ‘Many people do, I know. Sir Horace calls her the greatintriguante, but she is clever, and can be very amusing. She has atendrefor him, as I daresay you have guessed. I like Princess Esterhazy better myself, I own, and Lady Jersey better than either of them, because she is so much more sincere, in spite of that restless manner of hers.’
‘Dreadful woman!’ said Charles. ‘She never stops talking! She is known as Silence, in London.’
‘Is she? Well, I am sure, if she knows it, she does not care a bit, for she dearly loves a joke.’
‘You are fortunate in knowing so many of the Patronesses of Almack’s,’ observed Miss Wraxton.
Sophy gave her irrepressible chuckle. ‘To be honest, I think my good fortune lies in having such an accomplished flirt for a father!’
Mr Wraxton giggled at this, and his sister, dropping a little behind, brought her mare up on Mr Rivenhall’s other side, andsaid in a low tone, under cover of some quizzing remark made to Sophy by Mr Wraxton: ‘It is a pity that men will laugh when her liveliness betrays her into saying what cannot be thought becoming. It brings her too much into notice, and that, I fancy, is the root of the evil.’
He raised his brows. ‘You are severe! Do you dislike her?’
‘Oh, no, no!’ she said quickly. ‘It is merely that I have no great taste for that kind of sportive playfulness.’
He looked as though he would have liked to have said something more, but at this moment a very military-looking cavalcade came into sight, cantering easily towards them. It consisted of four gentlemen, whose dashing side-whiskers and soldierly bearing proclaimed their profession. They glanced idly at Mr Rivenhall’s party. The next instant there was a shout, and a hurried reining-in, and one of the quartet exclaimed in ringing accents: ‘By all that’s wonderful, it’s the Grand Sophy!’
Confusion and babel followed this, all four gentlemen pressing up to grasp Sophy’s hand, and pelting her with questions. Where had she sprung from? how long had she been in England? why had they not been told of her arrival? how was Sir Horace?
‘Oh, but, Sophy, you’re a sight for sore eyes!’ declared Major Quinton, who had first hailed her.
‘You have Salamanca still! Lord, do you remember riding him through the Pyrenees when you nearly got snapped up by old Soult?’
‘Sophy, what’s your direction? Are you living in London now? Where’s Sir Horace?’
She was laughing, trying to answer them all, while her horse sidled, and fidgeted, and tossed his head. ‘Abroad. Never mind about me! What are you all doing in England? I thought you in France still! Don’t tell me you have sold out!’
‘Debenham has, lucky dog! I’m on furlough; Wolvey’s stationed in England – what a thing it is to belong to the Gentleman’s Sons! – and Talgarth has become a great man, almost a Tiger! Yes, I assure you! A.D.C. to the Duke of York.You notice the air of consequence! But he is all condescension: not the least height in his manner – yet!’
‘Silence, rattle!’ said his victim. He was rather older than his companion, a handsome, dark man, with a decided air of fashion and a languid manner. ‘Dear Sophy, I am tolerably certain that you cannot have been in London above many days. Not the smallest rumour of any volcanic disturbance has come to my ears, and you know how quick I am to get abreast of the news!’
She laughed. ‘Oh, that is too bad of you, Sir Vincent! I don’t create disturbances: you know I don’t!’
‘I know nothing of the kind, my child. When last I saw you, you were engaged in arranging in the most ruthless fashion the affairs of the most bewildered family of Belgians I have yet encountered. They had all my sympathy, but there was nothing I could do to help them: I know my limitations.’
‘Those poor Le Bruns! Well, butsomeonehad to help them out of such a tangle! I assure you, everything was settledmostsatisfactorily! But come! I forget my manners in all this excitement! Miss Wraxton, do pray forgive me, and allow me to present to you Colonel Sir Vincent Talgarth; and, beside him, Colonel Debenham. And this is Major Titus Quinton, and – oh, dear, ought I to have said your name first, Frances? it is one of the things I never know, but no matter! – Captain Lord Francis Wolvey! And this is my cousin, Mr Rivenhall. Oh, and Mr Wraxton, also!’
Miss Wraxton inclined her head politely; Mr Rivenhall, bowing slightly to the rest of the party, addressed himself to Lord Francis, saying: ‘I don’t think I ever met you, but your brother and I were up at Oxford together.’
