‘Oh, pray believe it’s no such thing!’ cried Lady Ombersley, distressed. ‘I did not wish you to think – to give you cause to suppose that Charles is ever disagreeable, for indeed he is not, except when he is put out of temper, and one must own that he has a great deal to try his patience! Which is why I can’t but feel, dear Horace, that if he does not like me to take charge of Sophia for you, I ought not to tease him!’
‘Fiddlesticks!’ said Sir Horace. ‘And why shouldn’t he like it?’
‘We – we decided not to give any parties this season, beyond what must be thought necessary. It is a most unfortunate circumstance that Charles’s wedding has had to be postponed, on account of a bereavement Miss Wraxton has suffered. One of Lady Brinklow’s sisters, and they will not be out of black gloves for six months. You must know that the Brinklows are very particular in all matters of correct conduct. Eugenia goes only to very quiet parties, and – and naturally one must expect Charles to partake of her sentiments!’
‘Lord, Elizabeth, a man don’t have to wear black gloves for the aunt of a female he ain’t even married to!’
‘Of course not, but Charles seemed to feel – and then there is Charlbury!’
‘What the devil ails him!’
‘Mumps,’ replied Lady Ombersley tragically.
‘He?’ Sir Horace burst out laughing. ‘Well, what a fellow he must be to have mumps when he should be getting married to Cecilia!’
‘Really, Horace, I must say that I think that most unjust of you, for how could he help it? It is so mortifying for him! And, what is more, excessively unfortunate, because I don’t doubt that had he been able to attach Cecilia – which I am sure he must have done, for nothing could be more amiable than his disposition, while his manners and address are just what they ought to be! But girls are so foolish, and take romantical notions into their heads, besides all kinds of encroaching fancies – however, Iam happy to think that Cecilia is not one of those dreadful modern misses, and of course she will be guided by her parents! But no one can deny that nothing could be more ill-timed than Charlbury’s mumps!’
Sir Horace, once more opening his snuff-box, regarded her with an amused and a sapient eye. ‘And what is Miss Cecilia’s particular encroaching fancy?’ he enquired.
Lady Ombersley knew that her eldest son would have counselled her to preserve a discreet silence; but the impulse to unburden herself to her brother was too strong to be denied. She said: ‘Well, you will not repeat it, I know, Horace, but the fact is that the silly child thinks she is in love with Augustus Fawnhope!’
‘One of Lutterworth’s boys?’ asked Sir Horace. ‘I don’t think much of that for a match, I must say!’
‘Good heavens, don’t mention such a thing! The youngest son, too, with not the least expectation in the world! But he is a poet.’
‘Very dangerous,’ agreed Sir Horace. ‘Don’t think I ever saw the boy: what’s he like?’
‘Quite beautiful!’ said Lady Ombersley, in despairing accents.
‘What, in the style of Lord Byron? That fellow has a great deal to answer for!’
‘No-no. I mean, he is as fair as Cecilia is herself, and he doesn’t limp, and though his poems are very pretty, bound up in white vellum, they don’t seem totakevery well. I mean, not at all like Lord Byron’s. It seems sadly unjust, for I believe it cost a great deal of money to have them printed, and he had to bear the whole – or, rather, Lady Lutterworth did, according to what I have heard.’
‘Now I come to think of it,’ said Sir Horace, ‘I do know the boy. He was with Stuart, in Brussels last year. If you take my advice, you’ll marry Cecilia off to Charlbury as quickly as you can!’
‘Well, and so I would, if only – that is to say, of course I would not, if I thought she held him in aversion! And you must see, Horace, that it is quite out of my power to do anything of the sort when he is in bed with the mumps!’
Sir Horace shook his head. ‘She will marry the poet.’
‘Do not say so! But Charles thinks that I should do wisely not to take her where she is bound to meet the young man, which is another reason why we are living in a quiet style for the present. It is of all things the most awkward! Indeed, sometimes I feel that it would be much easier if the wretched creature were quite ineligible – a fortune-hunter, or a merchant’s son, or something of that nature! One could then forbid him the house, and forbid Cecilia to stand up with him at balls, only it would not be in the least necessary for we should never meet him in society. But naturally one meets the Fawnhopes everywhere! Nothing could be more provoking! And although I am sure Charles’s manner towards him is most repellent, even he acknowledges the impropriety of being so repulsive to him as to offend his family. Almeria Lutterworth is one of my oldest friends!’
Sir Horace, who was already bored with the subject, yawned, and said lazily: ‘I daresay there is no occasion for you to be on the fidgets. The Fawnhopes are all as poor as Church mice, and very likely Lady Lutterworth desires the match as little as you do.’
‘Nothing of the sort!’ she replied, quite crossly. ‘She is foolish beyond permission, Horace! Whatever Augustus wants he must have! She has given me the most unmistakable hints, so that I scarcely knew where to look, much less what to say, except that Lord Charlbury had requested our leave to address Cecilia, and I believed her to be – well, not indifferent to him! It never entered my head that Augustus was so lost to all sense of propriety as to apply to Cecilia without first approaching Ombersley, yet that is precisely what he has done!’
‘Oh, well!’ said Sir Horace. ‘If she has such a fancy for him, you had better let her take him. It’s not as though she would be marrying beneath her, and if she chooses to be the wife of a penniless younger son it is quite her own affair.’
‘You would not say so if it were Sophia!’ said his sister.
‘Sophy’s not such a fool.’
‘Cecilia is not a fool either,’ declared Lady Ombersley,affronted. ‘If you have seen Augustus you can not wonder at her! No one could help feeling a decided partiality for him! I own, I did myself. But Charles is quite right, as I was soon brought to acknowledge: it would not answer!’
‘Ah, well, when she has her cousin to keep her company it will divert her, and very likely give her thoughts another direction,’ said Sir Horace consolingly.
Lady Ombersley appeared to be much struck by this suggestion. Her face brightened; she said: ‘I wonder if it might be so? She is a little shy, you must know, and does not make friends easily, and since her dear friend, Miss Friston, was married, and has gone to live in the Midlands, there is really no young female with whom she is upon terms of intimacy. Now, if we had dear Sophia to stay with us …’ She broke off, obviously turning plans over in her mind. She was still engaged on this exercise when the door opened, and her eldest son entered the saloon.
The Honourable Charles Rivenhall was twenty-six years old, but a rather harsh-featured countenance, coupled with a manner that combined assurance with a good deal of reserve, made him give the impression of being some years older. He was a tall, powerfully-built young man, who looked as though he would have been better pleased to have been striding over his father’s acres than exchanging civilities in his mother’s sitting-room. He nearly always wore riding-dress in preference to the more fashionable pantaloons and Hessians; tied his cravat in the plainest of styles; would permit only a modicum of starch to stiffen his very moderate shirt-points; wholly disdained such fopperies as seals, fobs, or quizzing-glasses; and offended his tailor by insisting on having his coats cut so that he could shrug himself into them without the assistance of his valet. He had been heard to express the hope that heaven would forbid he should ever be mistaken for one of the dandy-set; but, as his friend, Mr Cyprian Wychbold, kindly pointed out to him, there was not the least need for heavenly intervention in the matter. The dandies, said Mr Wychbold with some severity, were distinguished as much for their polished address as for their exquisite apparel,and were in general an amiable set of men, whose polite manners and winning graces made them acceptable in any drawing-room. As Mr Rivenhall’s notion of making himself agreeable in company was to treat with cold civility anyone for whom he felt no particular liking; and his graces – far from winning – included a trick of staring out of countenance those whose pretensions he deprecated, and of uttering blighting comments, which put an abrupt end to social intercourse, he stood in far greater danger (Mr Wychbold said) of being mistaken for a Yahoo.
