The Grand Sophy Read online

  ‘Yes, too tall,’ he replied.

  She could not help being glad that he apparently did not admire his cousin, for although she perceived, on closer scrutiny, that Sophy was not as handsome as herself, her first impression had been of a very striking young woman. She now saw that she had been misled by the size and brilliance of Sophy’s eyes: her other features were less remarkable. She said: ‘Perhaps, a trifle, but she is very graceful.’

  Sophy at this moment went to sit down beside her aunt, and Charles caught sight of the fairy-like little greyhound, which had been clinging close to her skirts, not liking so many strangers. His brows rose; he said: ‘We seem to have two guests. What is her name, cousin?’

  He was holding down his hand to the greyhound, but Sophy said: ‘Tina. I am afraid she will not go to you: she is very shy.’

  ‘Oh, yes, she will!’ he replied, snapping his fingers.

  Sophy found his air of cool certainty rather annoying, but when she saw that he was quite right, and watched her pet making coquettish overtures of friendship, she forgave him, and was inclined to think he could not be as black as he had been painted.

  ‘What a pretty little creature!’ remarked Miss Wraxton amiably. ‘I am not, in general, fond of pets in the house – my Mama, dear Lady Ombersley, will never have even a cat, you know – but I am sure this must be quite an exception.’

  ‘Mama has a great liking for pet dogs,’ said Cecilia. ‘We are not usually without one, are we, ma’am?’

  ‘Fat and overfed pugs,’ said Charles, with a grimace at his mother. ‘I prefer this elegant lady, I confess.’

  ‘Oh, that is not the most famous of Cousin Sophy’s pets!’ declared Hubert. ‘You wait, Charles, until you see what else she has brought from Portugal!’

  Lady Ombersley stirred uneasily, for she had not yet broken the news to her eldest son that a monkey in a red coat was now King of the Schoolroom. But Charles only said: ‘I understand, cousin, that you have brought your horse with you too. Hubert can talk of nothing else. Spanish?’

  ‘Yes, and Mameluke-trained. He is very beautiful.’

  ‘I’ll go bail you’re a famous horsewoman, cousin!’ Hubert said.

  ‘I don’t know that. I have had to ride a great deal.’

  The door opened just then, but not, as Lady Ombersley had expected, to admit her butler, with an announcement that dinner awaited her pleasure. Her husband walked in, announcing that he must just catch a glimpse of his little niece before going off to White’s. Lady Ombersley felt that it was bad enough of him to have refused to dine at home in Miss Wraxton’s honour without this added piece of casual behaviour, but she did not let her irritation appear, merely saying, ‘She is not so very little, after all, my love, as you may see.’

  ‘Good Gad!’ exclaimed his lordship, as Sophy rose to greet him. Then he burst out laughing, embraced Sophy, and said: ‘Well, well, well! You’re almost as tall as your father, my dear! Devilish like him, too, now I come to look at you!’

  ‘Miss Wraxton, Lord Ombersley,’ said his wife reprovingly.

  ‘Eh! Oh, yes, how-de-do?’ said his lordship, bestowing a cheerful nod on Miss Wraxton. ‘I count you as one of the family, and stand on no ceremony with you. Come and sit down beside me, Sophy, and tell me how your father does these days!’

  He then drew Sophy to a sofa, and plunged into animated conversation, recalling incidents thirty years old, laughing heartily over them, and presenting all the appearance of one who had completely forgotten an engagement to dine at his club. He was always well-disposed towards pretty young women, and when they added liveliness to their charms, and guessed exactly how he liked to conduct a flirtation, he enjoyed himself very much in their company, and was in no hurry to leave them. Dassett, coming in a few minutes later to announce dinner, took in the situation immediately, and after exchanging a glance with his mistress withdrew again to superintend the laying of another place at the table. When he returned to make his announcement, Lord Ombersley exclaimed: ‘What’s that? Dinner-time already? I declare, I’ll dine at home after all!’

  He then took Sophy down on his arm, ignoring Miss Wraxton’s superior claims to this honour, and as they took their places at the dining-table commanded her to tell him what maggot has got into her father’s head to make him go off to Peru.

  ‘Not Peru: Brazil, sir,’ Sophy replied.

  ‘Much the same, my dear, and just as outlandish! I never knew such a fellow for travelling all over the world! He’ll be going off to China next!’

  ‘No, Lord Amherst went to China,’ said Sophy. ‘In February, I think. Sir Horace was wanted for Brazil because he perfectly understands Portuguese affairs, and it is hoped he may be able to persuade the Regent to go back to Lisbon. Marshal Beresford has become so excessively unpopular, you know. No wonder! He does not know how to be conciliating, and has not a grain of tact.’

  ‘Marshal Beresford,’ Miss Wraxton informed Charles, in a well modulated voice, ‘is a friend of my father’s.’

  ‘Then you must forgive me for saying that he has no tact,’ said Sophy at once, and with her swift smile. ‘It is perfectly true, but I believe no one ever doubted that he is a man of many excellent qualities. It is a pity that he should be making such a cake of himself.’

  This made Lord Ombersley and Hubert laugh, but Miss Wraxton stiffened a little, and Charles shot a frowning look across the table at his cousin, as though he were revising his first favourable impression of her. His betrothed, who always conducted herself with rigid propriety, could not, even at an informal family party, bring herself to talk across the table, and demonstrated her superior upbringing by ignoring Sophy’s remark, and beginning to talk to Charles about Dante, with a particular reference to Mr Cary’s translation. He listened to her with courtesy, but when Cecilia, following her cousin’s unconventional example, joined in their conversation to express her own preference for the style of Lord Byron, he made no effort to snub her, but, on the contrary, seemed rather to welcome her entrance into the discussion. Sophy enthusiastically applauded Cecilia’s taste, announcing that her copy of The Corsair was so well-worn as to be in danger of disintegrating. Miss Wraxton said that she was unable to give an opinion on the merits of this poem, as her Mama did not care to have any of his lordship’s works in the house. Since Lord Byron’s marital difficulties were amongst the most scandalous on dits of the town, it being widely rumoured that he was, at the earnest solicitations of his friends, on the point of leaving the country, this remark at once made the discussion seem undesirably raffish, and everyone was relieved when Hubert, disclaiming any liking for poetry, went into raptures over that capital novel, Waverley. Here again Miss Wraxton was unable to edify the company with any measured criticism, but she graciously said that she believed the work in question to be, for a novel, quite unexceptionable. Lord Ombersley then said that they were all very bookish, but Ruff ’s Guide to the Turf was good enough reading for him, and drew Sophy out of the conversation by asking her a great many questions about old friends of his own whom, since they now adorned various Embassies, she might be counted upon to know.

  After dinner, Lord Ombersley put in no appearance in the drawing-room, the claims of faro being too insistent to be ignored; and Miss Wraxton very prettily begged that the children might be permitted to come downstairs, adding, with a smile cast upwards at Charles, that she had not had the felicity of seeing her little friend Theodore since he had come home for the Easter holidays. However, when her little friend presently appeared he was carrying Jacko upon his shoulder, which made her shrink back in her chair, and utter an exclamation of protest.

  The awful moment of disclosure had come, and, thanks (Lady Ombersley bitterly reflected) to Miss Adderbury’s lamentable lack of control over her young charges, at quite the wrong moment. Charles, at first inclined to be amused, was speedily brought to his senses by Miss Wraxton’s evident disapproval. He said that however desirable a denizen of a schoolroom a monkey might be – which was a question