‘Yes, I would! You encourage every scarlet coat you have ever met to haunt the house! You set the town talking with your shameless conduct in keeping Charlbury dangling after you, and not content with that you allow a fellow like Talgarth to behave to you as though you had been an inn-servant!’
She opened her eyes at him. ‘Charles!is that what you do? pinch their chins? Well, I was never more astonished! I don’t think you should!’
‘Don’t try my temper too far, Sophy!’ he said dangerously. ‘If you knew how my hands itch to box your ears, you would take care!’
‘Oh, I am sure you never would!’ she said, smiling. ‘You know Sir Horace did not teach me how to box, and how unfair it would be! Besides, why should you care a button what I do? I am not one of your sisters!’
‘Thank God for it!’
‘Yes, indeed, for you are the horridest brother, you know! Do stop making a cake of yourself! Sir Vincent is a sad case, but he would never do me any harm, I assure you.Thatwould be quite against his code, for he knew me when I was a little girl, and he is a friend of Sir Horace’s. I must say, he is the oddest creature! Sancia, it is perfectly plain, he does not hold to be in the least sacred.’ Her brow creased. ‘I am much afraid of what he may do in that direction. I wonder if I ought to say I will marry him after all?’
‘What!’ exclaimed Mr Rivenhall. ‘Marry that fellow? Not while you are under this roof!’
‘Yes, but I cannot help thinking that perhaps I owe it to Sir Horace,’ she explained. ‘I own, it would be a sacrifice, but I am sure he trusts me to take care of Sancia while he is away, and I don’t at all perceive how I am to prevent Sir Vincent from stealing her affections, unless I marry him myself. He has so much address, you know!’
‘You appear to me,’ said Mr Rivenhall scathingly, ‘to have taken leave of your senses! You will scarcely expect me to believe that you would entertain the thought of marriage with that man!’
‘But, Charles, I find you most unreasonable!’ she pointed out. ‘Not a week ago you said that the sooner I was married and out of this house the better pleased you would be, but when I said perhaps I might marry Charlbury you flew into a passion, and now you will not hear of poor Sir Vincent either!’
Mr Rivenhall made no attempt to answer this. He merely cast a darkling glance at his cousin, and said: ‘Only one thing could surprise me, and that would be to learn that Talgarth had offered for you!’
‘Well, you must be surprised,’ said Sophy placidly, ‘because he has done so a score of times. It is become a habit with him, I think. But I know what you mean, and you are right: he would be very much disconcerted if I took him at his word. I might, of course, become engaged to him, and cry off when Sir Horace returns, but it seems rather a shabby thing to do, don’t you think?’
‘Extremely so!’
She sighed. ‘Yes, and he is so clever that I daresay he would guess what I was about. I might, I suppose, remove to Merton, and that would certainly make it awkward for Sir Vincent. But Sancia would not like that at all, I fear.’
‘She has my sympathy!’
Sophy looked at him. Under his amazed and horrified gaze, large tears slowly welled over her eyelids, and rolled down hercheeks. She did not sniff, or gulp, or even sob: merely allowed her tears to gather and fall.
‘Sophy!’ ejaculated Mr Rivenhall, visibly shaken. He took an involuntary step towards her, checked himself, and said, rather disjointedly: ‘Pray do not! I did not mean – I had no intention – You know how it is with me! I say more than I mean, when – Sophy, for God’s sake do not cry!’
‘Oh, do not stop me!’ begged Sophy. ‘Sir Horace says it is myonlyaccomplishment!’
Mr Rivenhall glared at her. ‘What!’
Very few persons are able to do it!’ Sophy assured him. ‘I discovered it by the veriest accident when I was only seven years old. Sir Horace said I should cultivate it, for I should find it most useful.’
‘You – you –’ Words failed Mr Rivenhall. ‘Stop at once!’
‘Oh, I have stopped!’ said Sophy, carefully wiping the drops away. ‘I cannot continue if I don’t keep sad thoughts in my mind, such as you saying unkind things to me, or –’
‘I do not believe you felt the slightest inclination to cry!’ declared Mr Rivenhall roundly. ‘You did it only to set me at a disadvantage! You are, without exception, the most abominable, shameless – Don’t start again!’
She laughed. ‘Very well, but if I am so horrid, perhaps it would be better for me to go to stay with Sancia.’
‘Understand this! said Mr Rivenhall. ‘My uncle left you expressly to my mother’s care, and in this you will remain until such time as he returns to England! As for these nonsensical notions about the Marquesa,youare not to be held responsible for anything she may choose to do!’
‘Where the well-being of the persons to whom one is attached is concerned, one cannot say that one is not responsible,’ said Sophy simply. ‘One should make a push to be of service. Yet I do not perceive what I should do in this event. I wish it had been possible for Sancia to have stayed in Sir Horace’s own house!’
‘At Ashtead? How should that serve?’
‘It is not so near to town,’ she pointed out.
‘Sixteen or seventeen miles only, I daresay!’
‘More than twice as far away as Merton, however. But it is useless to repine over that. Sir Horace says the place is in disrepair, quite unfit to live in. He means to set it all to rights when he comes back to England. I only wish it may not be too late!’
