The Grand Sophy Read online

  Sophy, who had led the way to a rustic seat, now obliged him to sit down beside her on it. Tracing a pattern on the gravel path with the point of her parasol, she said: ‘If it is money – and it nearly always is: it is the most odious thing! – and you do not care to ask your papa for it, I expect I could help you.’

  ‘Much good it would be to ask my father!’ said Hubert. ‘He hasn’t a feather to fly with, and what is so dashed unjust, when you consider, the only time I ever applied to him he went into a worse rage than Charles does!’

  ‘Does Charles go into a rage?’

  ‘Oh, well – ! Not, not precisely, but I don’t know but what I’d liefer he did!’ replied Hubert bitterly.

  She nodded. ‘Then you don’t wish to approach him. Do pray, tell me!’

  ‘Certainly not!’ said Hubert, on his dignity. ‘Devilish good of you, Sophy, but I haven’t come to that yet!’

  ‘Come to what?’ she demanded.

  ‘Borrowing money from females, of course! Besides, there’s no need. I shall come about, and before I go up to Oxford again, thank the lord!’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Never mind, but it can’t fail! If it does – but it will not! I may have a father who – well, no sense in talking of him! And I may have a dashed disagreeable brother, holding so tightly to the purse-strings that you’d think he was a Jew, but fortunately for me I’ve a couple of good friends – whatever Charles may say!’

  ‘Oh!’ said Sophy, digesting this information. Disagreeable Charles might be, but she was shrewd enough to suspect that if he condemned any of Hubert’s friends there might be much to be said in his defence. ‘Does he dislike your friends?’

  Hubert gave a short laugh. ‘Lord, yes! Just because they are knowing ’uns, and kick up a lark every now and then, he proses like a Methodist, and – Here, Sophy, you won’t start talking to Charles, will you?’

  ‘Of course I shall do no such thing!’ she said indignantly. ‘Why, what a creature you must think me!’

  ‘No, I don’t, only – Oh, well, it don’t signify! I shall be as merry as a grig in a week’s time, and I don’t mean to get into a fix again, I can tell you!’

  She was obliged to be satisfied with this assurance, for he would say no more. After taking another turn round the shrubbery, she left him, and went back to the house.

  She found Mr Rivenhall seated under the elm tree on the south lawn, with Tina, who was sleeping off a large repast, at his feet. ‘If you want to see a rare picture, Sophy,’ he said, ‘peep in at the drawing-room window! My mother is sound asleep on one sofa, and the Marquesa on another.’

  ‘Well, if that is their notion of enjoyment I don’t think we should disturb them,’ she replied. ‘It would not be mine, but I do try to remember that some people like to spend half their days doing nothing at all.’

  He made room for her to sit down beside him. ‘No, I fancy idleness is not your besetting sin,’ he agreed. ‘Sometimes I wonder whether it would not be better for the rest of us if it were, but we have agreed not to quarrel today, so I shall not pursue that thought. But, Sophy, what is my uncle about to be marrying that woman?’

  She wrinkled her brow. ‘She is very good-natured, you know, and Sir Horace says he likes reposeful females.’

  ‘I am astonished that you have sanctioned so unsuitable a match.’

  ‘Nonsense! I have nothing to say to it.’

  ‘I imagine you have everything to say to it,’ he retorted. ‘Don’t play off the airs of an innocent to me, cousin! I know you well enough to be tolerably certain that you rule my uncle with a rod of iron, and have probably guarded him from dozens of Marquesas in your time!’

  She laughed. ‘Well, yes,’ she admitted. ‘But, then, they would none of them have made the poor angel at all comfortable, and I do think perhaps Sancia may. I have long made up my mind to it that he should marry again, you know.’

  ‘Next you will say that this match is of your making!’

  ‘Oh, no! There is never the least need to make matches for Sir Horace!’ she said frankly. ‘He is the most susceptible creature imaginable, and, which is so dangerous, if a pretty woman will but weep on his shoulder he will do anything she wants!’

  He did not reply, and she saw that his attention was fixed on Cecilia and Sir Vincent, who had that instant come round a corner of the clipped yew hedge. A slight frown descended on to his brow, which made Sophy say severely: ‘Now, don’t take one of your pets because Cecy flirts a little with Sir Vincent! You should be thankful to see her taking interest in some other man than Mr Fawnhope. But there is no pleasing you!’

  ‘I am certainly not pleased with that connection!’

  ‘Oh, you have no cause to feel alarm! Sir Vincent is only interested in heiresses, and has no intention of offering for Cecy.’

  ‘Thank you, it is not on that score that I feel alarm,’ he answered.

  She could say no more, for by this time the other couple had come up to them. Cecilia, who was looking prettier than ever, described how Sir Vincent had been so obliging as to find a servant who gave him some maize for the pigeons. She had fed them, and her cousin thought she had taken far more delight in encouraging them to take maize from between her lips than in listening to Sir Vincent’s practised compliments.

  They were soon joined by Hubert. He shot Sophy a glance so pregnant with mischief that in spite of his high shirt-points, his elaborate neckcloth, and his fashionable waistcoat he looked very much more like a schoolboy than the town-beau he fancied himself. She could not imagine what mischief he could have found to perform in the little time since she had left him, but before she could speculate very seriously on this problem her attention was diverted by the Marquesa, who appeared at the drawing-room window, and made signs indicative of her desire that they should all come into the house. Civility obliged even Mr Rivenhall to obey the summons. They found the Marquesa so much refreshed by her nap as to have become quite animated. Lady Ombersley had awakened from slumber, uttering the mystic words: Lotion of the Ladies of Denmark, which had operated so powerfully upon her hostess as to make her sit bolt upright upon her sofa, exclaiming: ‘But no! Better distilled water of green pineapples, I assure you!’ By the time the party on the south lawn entered the house the two elder ladies had thoroughly explored every path known to them that led to the preservation of the complexion, and if they differed on such points as the value of raw veal laid on the face at night to remove wrinkles, they found themselves at one over the beneficial effects of chervil water, and crushed strawberries.

  It now being at least two hours since the light marienda had been consumed, the Marquesa stood in urgent need of further sustenance, and warmly invited her guests to partake of tea and angel cakes. It was then that Lady Ombersley became aware of the absence of Miss Wraxton and Mr Fawnhope from the gathering, and demanded to know where they were. Cecilia replied, with a shrug, that they were no doubt quoting poetry to each other in the wood; but when twenty minutes passed without their putting in an appearance not only Lady Ombersley, but her elder son also, became a trifle restive. Then it was that Sophy remembered Hubert’s look of mischief. She glanced across at him, and saw his expression was so unconcerned as to be wholly incredible. In deep foreboding she made an excuse to change her seat to one beside his, and whispered, under cover of the general conversation: ‘You dreadful creature, what have you done?’

  ‘Locked them into the wood!’ he whispered in return. ‘That will teach her to play propriety!’

  She had to bite back a laugh, but managed to say, with suitable severity: ‘It will not do! If you have the key, give it to me so that no one will observe you!’

  He said: ‘What a spoil-sport you are!’ but soon found an opportunity to drop it into her lap, for although it had seemed, at the time, a splendid idea to lock the gate into the wood, he had been realizing for some minutes that to release the imprisoned couple without scandal might prove to be rather more difficult.

  ‘It is so unlike dea