He sighed. ‘Do not think, dear Sophy, that I have not a great deal of pleasure in your society, but where is all this leading me? Do you know, for I do not?’
‘I depend upon its leading you just where you would wish to be,’ she replied seriously. ‘Pray trust me! Cecilia by no means likes to see you dancing attendance on me, I can assure you!’
Cecilia was not the only one to derive no pleasure from this spectacle. Mr Rivenhall, possibly because he still cherished hopes that a match might be made up between Charlbury and his sister, regarded it with the greatest dislike; and Lord Bromford, finding himself quite cut out, developed such a degree of hostility towards his rival as made it almost impossible for him to meet him even with the appearance of complaisance.
‘It seems to me a very extraordinary circumstance,’ he told his chief sympathizer, ‘that a man who has been dangling after one female – as the common phrase runs! – for more weeks than I care to enumerate should be so fickle as to transfer his attentions to another in so short a time! I confess, I have no comprehension of such conduct. Had I, dear Miss Wraxton, not been about the world a little, and learnt something of the frailty of mankind, I must have been totally at a loss! But I do not scruple to tellyouthat I never liked Charlbury about half.Hisconduct does not astonish me. I am onlygrieved, and I may add, surprised, to see Miss Stanton-Lacy so taken-in!’
‘No doubt,’ said Miss Wraxton pleasantly, ‘a lady who had been used to live upon the Continent must be expected to regard these matters in rather a different light from that in which such poor stay-at-homes as myself must look upon them. I believe thatflirtingis quite a pastime amongst foreign ladies.’
‘My dear ma’am,’ said his lordship, ‘I must tell you that I am by no means an advocate of travel for ladies. It does not seem to me to be a necessary thing for the education of the weaker sex, although for a man I think it to be indispensable. I should not be astonished to learn that Charlbury had never set foot outside this island, which is a circumstance that makes me wonder more than ever at Miss Stanton-Lacy’s partiality for his society.’
Lord Bromford’s hostility was perfectly well known to its object. Charlbury, cantering along the Row with Sophy, said to her once: ‘If I come out of this masquerade with a whole skin I may think myself fortunate! Are you determined I shall be slain, Sophy, you wretch?’
She laughed. ‘Bromford?’
‘He or Charles. Of the two, I hope it may be he who calls me out. I daresay he cannot hit a haystack at twelve yards, but Rivenhall I know to be a capital shot.’
She turned her head to look at him. ‘Do you think so indeed? Charles?’
He returned her look, his own eyes quizzing her. ‘Yes, Madam Innocence! Doubtless because of the slight upon his sister! Tell me – you are always frank! – do you make a practice of setting everyone to partners wherever you go?’
‘No,’ she replied. ‘Not unless I am persuaded it would be better for them!’
He laughed and laughed, and was still laughing when they encountered Mr and Miss Rivenhall, riding side by side towards them.
Sophy greeted her cousins with unaffected pleasure,altogether refraining from expressing her surprise at seeing Cecilia indulging in a form of exercise she was not much addicted to. She and Charlbury turned their horses to ride with the Rivenhalls, and she made no objection when, after a little way, Mr Rivenhall obliged her to fall behind the other two, and proceed at a sedate pace down the track. She said: ‘I like that bay of yours, Charles.’
‘You may like him,’ returned Mr Rivenhall disagreeably, ‘but you are not going to ride him!’
She cast him a sidelong look, brimful of mischief. ‘No, dear Charles?’
‘Sophy,’ said Mr Rivenhall, descending rapidly from the autocratic to the merely threatening, ‘if you dare to have your saddle put upon my Thunderer, I will strangle you, and throw your body into the Serpentine!’
She gave the gurgle of laughter that never failed to bring his twisted grin into being. ‘Oh, no, Charles, would you indeed? Well, I do not blame you! If ever I find you astride Salamanca, I shall certainly shoot you – andIcan make allowance for a gun that throws a little left!’
‘Yes?’ said Mr Rivenhall. ‘Well, my dear cousin, when we go down to Ombersley I shall derive much satisfaction from watching your marksmanship! You shall show me what you can do with my duelling pistols. They do not throw left, or even right: I am rather nice in the choice of my weapons!’
‘Duelling pistols!’ said Sophy, much impressed. ‘I had not thought it of you, Charles! How many times have you beenout? Do you always kill your man?’
‘Rarely!’ he retorted. ‘Duelling has gone sadly out of fashion, dear Sophy! I am so sorry to be obliged to disappoint you!’
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I had norealexpection of hearing that you had done anything so dashing!’
That made him laugh. He flung up a hand, in the gesture of a swordsman acknowledging a hit. ‘Very well, Sophy!Touché!’
‘Do you fence?’
‘Indifferently. Why?’
‘Oh, merely that it is something I have never learnt!’
‘Good God, how is this! I had thought Sir Horacemusthave taught you how to handle a small-sword!’
‘No,’ said Sophy, making her mouth prim. ‘And he has not taught me how to box either, so there are two things, Charles, which you must be able to do better than I can!’
‘You quite outstrip me,’ he agreed suavely. ‘Particularly in the art of dalliance!’
She instantly disconcerted him by making an attack direct. ‘Dalliance, Charles? You do not, I hope, accuse me offlirting?’
