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  He looked annoyed, but before he had time to speak an interruption occurred, in the person of Miss Farlow, who came into the room, with her bonnet askew, and words tripping off her tongue. 'Such a vexatious thing, dear Annis! I have been all over the town, trying to match that sarcenet, and, would you believe it, not even Thorne's were able to offer me anything like it! So what with this horrid wind, which has positively blown me to pieces, and –' She stopped, becoming suddenly aware of the presence of a stranger. 'Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't know! What a sadly shocking thing of me to do, bursting in on you, which of course I should never have done if James had informed me that you had a visitor! But he never said a word about it – just relieved me of my parcels, you know, for it was he who opened the door, not our good Limbury, who I daresay was busy in the pantry, and I desired him to give the large one to Mrs Wardlow, and to have the others carried up to my bedchamber, which he said he would do, and then we exchanged a few words about the way the wind whips at one round every corner, and how dreadfully steep the hill is, particularly when one is burdened with parcels, as, of course, I was, and which has made me quite out of breath, besides tousling me quite abominably!'

  Miss Wychwood, having observed with malicious enjoyment the effect on Mr Carleton of this tangled speech, intervened at this point, saying: 'I've no sympathy to waste on you, Maria! Indeed, I think you very well served for being so foolish as to walk home, instead of calling up a chair! As for "bursting in", I am glad you did, for I wish to make Mr Carleton known to you – Lucilla's uncle, you know! Mr Carleton, Miss Farlow – my cousin, who is kind enough to reside with me.'

  He favoured Miss Farlow with a brief bow, but addressed himself to his hostess, saying, with the flicker of an impish smile: 'Lending you countenance, ma'am?'

  'Exactly so!' she said, refusing to rise to this bait.

  'You astonish me! I hadn't supposed that any lady so advanced in years as yourself would be conscious of the need of chaperonage! Is your name Annis? A corruption, I believe, of Agnes, but I like it! It becomes you.'

  'Well!' exclaimed Miss Farlow, bristling in defence of her patroness, 'I'm sure I don't know why you should, not that I mean to say it is not a very pretty name, for I think it very pretty, but if it is a corruption it cannot be thought to become dear Miss Wychwood, who is not in the least corrupt, let me assure you!'

  'Thank you, Maria!' said Miss Wychwood, bubbling over with ill-suppressed mirth. 'I knew I might depend on you to establish my character!'

  'Indeed you may, dearest Annis!' declared Miss Farlow, much moved. She glared through starting tears at Mr Carleton, and added, with a gasp at her own temerity: 'I shall take leave to tell you, sir, that I think it most ungentlemanly of you to cast aspersions on Miss Wychwood!'

  'No, no, Maria!' said Miss Wychwood, trying to speak with proper sobriety, 'you wrong him! I don't think he meant to cast aspersions on me – though I own I wouldn't be prepared to hazard any large sum on such a doubtful chance!'

  'Hornet!' said Mr Carleton appreciatively.

  She twinkled at him, and awoke a reluctant smile in his hard eyes. 'Let us leave my character out of the discussion! You have come to Bath – at great personal inconvenience – to see your niece, but, most unfortunately, she is not here at the moment. So what is to be done? You will scarcely wish to sit here, kicking your heels, until she returns!'

  'No, by God I wouldn't! Any more, I dare swear, than you would wish me to do so!'

  'No, indeed! You would be very much in my way! Perhaps it would be best if you were to dine here tonight.'

  'No,' he said decisively. 'You're very obliging, ma'am, but it would be best if you brought her to dine with me, at the York House. I'm putting up there, and they seem to keep a tolerable table. I shall expect you both at seven – unless you prefer a later hour?'

  'Oh, no! But pray don't depend upon my joining you! My abigail shall escort Lucilla to York House, and I feel sure I can rely on you to bring her back later in the evening.'

  'That won't do at all!' he said. 'Your presence at any discussion about Lucilla's future is indispensable, believe me! I do depend upon your joining me. Don't fail me!'

  With that, he took his leave, bowing slightly to Miss Farlow, but grasping Miss Wychwood's hand for a moment, and favouring her with a rueful grin.

  Six

  Well!' uttered Miss Farlow, in accents of strong reprobation, as soon as Limbury had conducted Mr Carleton out of the room. 'What a very uncivil person, I must say! To be sure, Sir Geoffrey did warn us, and I do hope, dearest Annis, that you will not dine with him this evening! Such impertinence to have invited you – if an invitation you could call it, though I never heard an invitation delivered so improperly! I quite thought you must have given him a heavy set-down, and was astonished that you did not!'

  'Well, I did think of doing so,' admitted Miss Wychwood. 'But since he is, as you so rightly say, a very uncivil person, I couldn't be sure that he wouldn't retaliate in kind. I feel it is my duty to go with Lucilla, if only to prevent her coming to cuffs with him.'

  'I make no secret of the fact that I don't consider you owe that girl any duty!' said Miss Farlow, trembling with indignation. 'But I have a duty towards you, and don't tell me I haven't, for I shan't listen to you! Sir Geoffrey and dear Lady Wychwood entrusted you to my care, and even if he didn't say so, he meant it, and Lady Wychwood did say so! Just as I was about to get into the carriage, or if it wasn't then, it was in the hall, or perhaps the morning-room, because she had a little chill coming on, and so didn't come out of the house, though she wished to, but I begged her not to do so, because the weather was most inclement, which you must remember, so we said goodbye in the hall –'

  'Or perhaps in the morning-room?' interpolated Miss Wychwood.

  'It may have been: I'm not perfectly sure, but it makes no difference! And she distinctly said, when she bade me goodbye, or perhaps just after she had said goodbye: "Take care of her, Cousin Maria!" Meaning you, of course! And I promised I would, and so I shall!'

  'Thank you, Maria, I feel sure I can depend on you to come to my rescue if I should find myself in trouble. But at the moment I'm not in any sort of trouble, so do, I beg of you, put your bonnet straight, and make your hair tidy again! You look like a birch-broom in a fit!'

  'Annis!' said Miss Farlow, sinking her voice impressively. 'That man is not a proper person for you to know!'

  'Fiddle! I collect Geoffrey told you so, but what harm either of you expect him to do I haven't the most distant guess. Do you suspect him of having designs upon my virtue? You are quite beside the bridge if you do! He doesn't even like me!'

  Miss Farlow's modesty was so much shocked by this speech that she uttered a faint shriek, and tottered away to her own room, there to write an agitated letter to Sir Geoffrey Wychwood, in which she assured him that he might depend on her to do all that lay in her power to put an end to a most undesirable friendship, and (in the same sentence) warned him that she feared there was nothing she could do to stop dear Annis in one of her headstrong moods.

  When Lucilla came in, it was several minutes before Miss Wychwood was able to break the news of her uncle's arrival to her, so anxious was she to recount all the details of the day's expedition. But she did at last pause for breath, and the change that came over her countenance when she heard the dread tidings was almost ludicrous. The sparkle was quenched instantly in her eyes, the smile vanished from her lips, she turned pale, and wrung her hands together. 'He has come to drag me away! Oh, no, no, no!'

  'Don't be such a goose!' said Miss Wychwood, laughing at her. 'I don't think he has any such intention, though I fancy that may well have been his original purpose. But until I told him just what the case was he had no idea that the Iverleys and Mrs Amber were trying to bring about a match between you and Ninian. You need not be afraid that he will help them to promote that precious scheme, for he most certainly will not. He was excessively vexed – partly with them, and partly with you, for not having written to