“Viper!” said his lordship appreciatively. “I will endure the company of your beautiful but bird-witted sister, but on the condition that the tedium of these sessions will be relieved occasionally by your astringent quality. By-the-by, does rumour lie, or is my equally bird-witted young cousin growing extremely particular in his attentions?”
“No — though in some ways I wish it did!” replied Frederica. “But as for growing extremely particular —! He seems to have conceived a violent passion for Charis the instant he laid eyes on her. I must say, I wish he were not so very handsome! I am afraid he is the only one of her admirers for whom Charis does cherish a tendre, and I can conceive of nothing more unsuitable! Nor, I fancy, would Mrs Dauntry welcome such an alliance.”
“Certainly not. One of the tightish clever sort, my saintly Cousin Lucretia!”
“Well, you can’t blame her for wishing her son to contract an advantageous marriage,” said Frederica reasonably. “It is precisely what I want Charis to do, after all! I don’t desire to offend you, my lord, but I cannot think Endymion an eligible parti! It is all very well for his mama to talk of his being your heir, but who is to say that it will ever come to that? You are not in your dotage!”
“Thank you!” said his lordship, in failing accents.
Her eyes twinkled responsively, but she said politely: “Not at all! The thing is, however, that when Endymion is Charis’s escort I can be easy in my mind. He treats her with the greatest respect — almost with reverence!”
“Yes, he always was a slow-top,” he commented. “Poor girl! Is Buxted also dangling after her?”
“Oh, dear me, no!” she replied, casting down her eyes, and folding her hands primly in her lap. “Lord Buxted, cousin, has a decided preference for me!”
He burst out laughing. “No, has he Indeed? I pity you, then, but think the better of him! What do you find to talk about, I wonder?”
“Why, I am not obliged to find anything! He is never at a loss. When we have commented on the political situation, and he has been so kind as to draw my attention to some article in one of the newspapers which I might not have read, he has always plenty to tell me about himself, and his estates, and his reflections upon various subjects.” She broke off, chuckling, but said penitently: “But I ought not to make game of him! He is very kind, and has a great deal of sense, even if he is atrifle prosy!”
“Dull and respectable. But not, I fancy, your only admirer. My heart positively bled for poor Aldridge when I saw Darcy Moreton cut him out at that very tedious soiree last Wednesday.”
“Oh, fiddle!” she said. “I wish you won’t be so nonsensical! Next you will be calling Mr Moreton my flirt, and nothing, I can assure you, is farther from his thoughts, or mine!”
“Wait until the crow is hatched before you pull it with me!”
She smiled. “I will — but pray believe that I don’t flirt, and I am not on the catch for a husband!”
“Except one for Charis. Tell me! Are you enjoying your first London season?”
She answered impulsively: “Oh, beyond calculation! In fact, I enjoy it all so much that I fear I must resemble poor Papa more than I knew!”
He was able, by the exercise of strong self-control, to reply, with only the smallest quiver in his voice: “What a very alarming thought! Surely you wrong yourself!”
“Well, I hope I do,” she said seriously. “I don’t care much for cards, at all events. None of us do, except, perhaps, Jessamy, and he, you know, has such deep principles that I’ve no fears for him. I expect it is too soon to know what Felix may do, but I don’t think he will be a gamester.”
He laughed. “Good God, no! He will be far too busy inventing a steam-shuffler, or a mechanical-dealer, to take any interest in mere gaming! How does he go on? Where is he? Don’t tell me he has set forth on another steamboat expedition!”
“No — though I collect he is much interested in some project to build ocean-going steamboats! I think he learned about it on his trip to Ramsgate, but I fancy the inventor is an American, for which I am truly thankful! Even Felix couldn’t go all that way!”
“I wouldn’t risk a groat against the chance! Very likely he will sign on as cabin-boy in a sailing-vessel bound for America, and we shall next hear of him in New York!”
“For heaven’s sake, don’t put such a notion into his head!” she begged, between alarm and amusement. “It is precisely the sort of thing he might do! But at the moment he is upstairs, in one of the attics, which we gave him for his experiments!”
“Good God!” Alverstoke ejaculated. “We had as well sit on a keg of gunpowder! I’ll take my leave of you before he blows the house up!”
“No, no, he won’t do that!” she replied, gurgling with merriment. “He promised me he would remember this is not our own house!”
He regarded her with appreciation. “You’d have no objection to his blowing it up if it were your own house? Accept my compliments on the fortitude of your mind!”
“How can you be so absurd? Of course I should object to it! I meant only that at home he has a workshop, and may do as he pleases in it.”
“I see! Does he often blow it up?”
She smiled. “He never blows it up! He did set fire to it once, but that was when he was trying to make a new kind of match, which would light without a tinder-box, and there was very little damage done, except that he singed his eyebrows off.”
“You are a very good sister, Frederica!” he commented.
“Well, I do try to be,” she said, colouring faintly. “My aunt, and our old nurse, were too anxious — or so it seemed to me — and for ever flying into high fidgets over the things the boys did, which didn’t answer at all, because it made them fall into the sullens, and pay not the least heed to anything they said.”
“It is a pity that your aunt did not save her anxiety for her nieces! I shall take leave to tell you, Frederica, that I think her a very poor chaperon!”
“Yes, but one must be just to her! She never wished to come to London, and only consented to do so on the understanding that she shouldn’t be dragged to fashionable parties. Recollect that I am quite old enough to chaperon Charis! Indeed, I’ve done so ever since she came out!”
“That,” said his lordship roundly, “is a greater absurdity than any I have uttered!”
“It isn’t — but I won’t argue with you on that head! In any event, she is not to be blamed for having more important things to think about at this present. My Uncle Scrabster is very unwell and poor Aunt Amelia is quite distracted with worry, and depends wholly on my Aunt Seraphina.”
He said nothing, compressing his lips, as though only by doing so could he keep back a retort. Two deep clefts appeared between his brows, but they vanished as the door burst open, and Felix came eagerly into the room, exclaiming: “You are here, sir! I thought it was your phaeton I saw, when I looked out of the window! You might have told me, Frederica, when you knew I particularly wanted to see him! The shabbiest thing!”
“God help me!” said his lordship. “Not another foundry, Felix!”
“No, no! At least, not precisely! It’s the New Mint! It has gas-lighting, and steam-engines of vast power, but when I went there with Jessamy they said no one was allowed to visit it without a — a special recommendation. So would you very kindly give me one, Cousin Alverstoke? If you please!”