Seale brought the mare to Bath, but he was accompanied by Sir Geoffrey, bristling with suspicion that his sister had taken it into her wayward head to befriend some Young Person who would prove to be an adventuress. Unfortunately, he arrived in Camden Place to find only Miss Farlow at home, and when he had learnt from her the circumstances under which Annis had made Lucilla’s acquaintance he became convinced that his suspicion had been correct.
“How can you have been so caper-witted?” he demanded of his sister, an hour later. “I had not thought it possible that you could be such a noddy! Pray, what do you know about this young woman? Upon my word, Annis—”
“Heavens, what a piece of work about nothing!” interrupted Annis. “I collect you’ve been talking to Maria, who is positively green with jealousy of poor Lucilla! She is a Carleton: an orphan, living, since her mother’s death, with one of her aunts; and since this Mrs Amber is in indifferent health Lucilla has come to stay with me for a few weeks, as a sort of prelude to her regular come-out. Ninian Elmore escorted her here, and—”
“Elmore? Elmore? Never heard of him!” declared Sir Geoffrey.
“Very likely you might not: he’s a mere child, not long down, I fancy, from Oxford. He is the son and heir of Lord Iverley—and I daresay you haven’t heard of him either, for I collect that he lives retired, at Chartley Place. A Hampshire family, and, even if you haven’t heard of them, perfectly respectable, I promise you!”
“Oh!” said Sir Geoffrey, slightly daunted. Chewing the cud of this information, he made a recover. “That’s all very well!” he said. “But how do you know this girl is a Carleton? Not that I like the connection any the better if she is! The only one of the family I’m acquainted with is Oliver Carleton—”
“Lucilla’s uncle,” interpolated Miss Wychwood.
“Well, I can tell you this!” said Sir Geoffrey. “He’s a damned unpleasant fellow! Got no manners, never scruples to give the back to anyone he don’t happen to like, thinks his birth and his wealth gives him the right to ride rough-shod over men quite as well born as himself, and—in short, the sort of ugly customer I should never dream of presenting to my sister!”
“Do you mean that he is a libertine?” asked Miss Wychwood.
“Annis!” he ejaculated.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Geoffrey—!” she said impatiently. “I cut my wisdoms years ago! If you wouldn’t dream of presenting him to me, what else can you mean?”
He glared at her. “You seem to me to have no delicacy of mind!” he said peevishly. “What my poor mother would say, if she could hear you expressing yourself with such unfeminine want of refinement I shudder to think of!”
“Then don’t think of it!” she recommended. “Think instead of what Papa would say! Though I daresay that would make you shudder too! Where did you learn to be so mealy-mouthed, Geoffrey? As for Mr Oliver Carleton, between you, you and Lucilla have inspired me with a strong desire to meet him! She has told me that he has all but one of the faults you’ve described to me; and you have added the one she, naturally, knows nothing about. He must be a positive monster!”
“Levity was ever your besetting sin,” he said severely. “Let me tell you that it is not at all becoming in a female! It leads you into talking a deal of improper nonsense. A strong desire to meet a monster, indeed!”
“But I have never seen a monster!” she explained. “Oh, well! I daresay it is nothing but a take-in, and he is much like any other man!”
“I must decline to discuss him with you. I should suppose it to be extremely unlikely that you ever will meet him, but if some unfortunate chance should bring him in your way I should be doing less than my duty if I did not warn you to have nothing to say to him, my dear sister! His reputation is not that of a well-conducted man. And if we are to talk of take-ins,what reason have you to think you are not the victim of one? I don’t attempt to conceal from you that I am far from satisfied that this girl is the innocent you believe her to be. I know from Maria Farlow that she ran away from her lawful guardian, and in the company of a young man! That is not the conduct of an innocent—indeed, it is the most shocking thing I ever heard of!—and it wouldn’t surprise me if she were bent on inching herself into your regard!”
“You know, Geoffrey, no one who heard you talking such skimble-skamble stuff would believe you to have any more sense than a zero! How can you be so idiotish as to pay the least heed to what Maria says? She has been convinced from the outset that Lucilla is scheming to take her place in my household, but you may rest easy on that head! Lucilla is a considerable heiress—far plumper in the pocket than I am, I daresay! She won’t come into her fortune until she is of age, but she enjoys what I judge to be a pretty handsome income. Mr Carleton, who is her guardian, pays it to Mrs Amber; and it is very obvious to me that it must be a handsome sum, for Mrs Amber gives her what Lucilla calls pin-money,but which a girl in less affluent circumstances would think herself fortunate to receive as an allowance to cover the cost of all her clothing. Mrs Amber pays for every stitch the child wears—and, although she seems to be a foolish creature, I must acknowledge that her taste is impeccable. I should doubt if she ever counts the cost of anything she buys for Lucilla. None of your poplins or cheap coloured muslins for Miss Carleton!” She laughed suddenly. “Jurby unpacked her trunk, and I may say that Lucilla has risen enormously in her estimation! She informed me, in a positively reverential voice, that Miss has everything of the best! As for her having run away with Ninian, it was no such thing: she ran away from Chartley Place, and Ninian very properly acted as her escort. Her aunt had very foolishly taken her there on a visit, and a great deal of pressure was being brought to bear on Ninian, to make her an offer, and on her to accept it. It seems that this scheme was hatched years ago between their respective fathers, who were devoted friends. Ninian believes this to be the only reason his father has for trying so hard to bring the match about, but I suspect Lucilla’s fortune has a good deal to do with it. The estate she inherited from her father runs, I gather, close enough to Chartley to make its acquisition by the Elmores extremely desirable. Understandable enough, you will say, but can you conceive of anything more cocklebrained, in this day and age, than to try to force two children—for they are little more than children!—to get married when they have been on brother-and-sister terms since they were in short coats?”
He had listened to her in staring silence, and he did not immediately answer her. But after a moment or two, he pronounced in pompous accents that he was no advocate for the license granted to the modern generation. Embroidering this theme, he said: “I hold that parents must be the best judges of such matters. They must, of necessity, know better than their children—”
“Fiddle!” said Miss Wychwood, bringing this dissertation to a summary closure. “Did Papa arrange your marriage to Amabel?” She saw that she had discomfited him, and added, with her lovely smile: “Trying it on too rare and thick, Geoffrey! You fell in love with Amabel, and proposed to her before Papa had ever set eyes on her! Didn’t you?”
He flushed darkly, tried to meet the challenge in her eyes, looked away, and replied, with a sheepish grin: “Well—yes! But,” he said, making another recover, “I knew Papa would approve of my choice, and he did!”
“To be sure he did!” agreed Miss Wychwood affably. “And if he had not approved of it, no doubt you would have cried off, and offered for a lady he did approve of!”
“I should have done no such thing!” he declared hotly. He met her laughing eyes, seethed impotently for a moment, and then capitulated, saying in the voice of one goaded to extremity: “Oh, damn you, Annis! My case was—was different!”