The Grand Sophy Read online

  ‘My love! Young ladies never – ! Why, I myself have never entered your uncle’s bank in my life!’ said Lady Ombersley, deeply moved.

  ‘No?’ said Sophy. ‘Perhaps he prefers to settle all the bills himself ? Nothing teases Sir Horace more than to be for ever applied to for money! He taught me years ago to understand business, and so we go on very happily.’ Her brow wrinkled. ‘I hope that Sancia will learn to manage for him. Poor angel! He will very much dislike it if he must study the bills, and pay all the wages.’

  ‘I never heard of such a thing!’ said Lady Ombersley. ‘Really, Horace – But never mind that! Dear child, you cannot possibly need to draw funds while you are with me!’

  Sophy could not help laughing at her aunt’s evident conviction that Hoare’s Bank must be a haunt of vice, but she said: ‘Indeed I shall need funds! You have no notion how expensive I am, ma’am! And Sir Horace warned me most particularly not to allow myself to be a charge on you.’

  Cecilia, her eyes round with wonder, asked: ‘Does your Papa set no limit to what you spend?’

  ‘No, how could he do so, when he has gone quite out of reach, and can have no notion what I might suddenly need? He knows I shall not outrun the carpenter. But I did not mean to tease you with my affairs! Only, in what part of the town is Hoare’s situated, if you please?’

  Fortunately, since neither of the other ladies had the smallest idea of the locality of any bank, Mr Rivenhall came into the room at this moment. He was dressed for riding, and had merely looked in to ask his mother if she had any commissions she might desire him to execute in the City, whither he was bound. She had none, but did not hesitate (in spite of his probable disapproval) to divulge to him Sophy’s extraordinary wish to be directed to Hoare’s Bank. He took this with equanimity, and even bore up wonderfully under the disclosure that she was at liberty to draw on her father’s account. He said: ‘Unusual!’ but he seemed to be more amused than disapproving. ‘Hoare’s Bank is at Temple Bar,’ he added. ‘If your need is urgent, I am driving into the City myself this morning, and shall be happy to escort you.’

  ‘Thank you! If my aunt has no objection I shall be glad to go with you. When do you wish to start?’

  ‘I shall await your convenience, cousin,’ he replied politely.

  This civility augured well for the expedition, and made Lady Ombersley, always inclined to be optimistic, nourish the hope that Charles had taken one of his rare likings to his cousin. He was certainly predisposed in her favour when he found that she did not keep him waiting; and she, for her part, could not think very badly of a man who drove such a splendid pair of horses in his curricle. She took her place beside him in this vehicle; the groom swung himself up behind, as the horses plunged past him; and Sophy, herself no mean whip, preserved a critical but not unappreciative silence while Charles controlled the first ardour of his pair. Reserving her ultimate judgement until she should have seen him with a tandem, or a four-in-hand, she yet felt that she could safely repose confidence in his ability to aid her in the purchase of carriage-horses for her own use, and said presently: ‘I must buy a carriage, and don’t know whether to choose a curricle or a high-perch phaeton. Which do you recommend, cousin?’

  ‘Neither,’ he replied, steadying his horses round a bend in the street.

  ‘Oh?’ said Sophy, rather surprised. ‘What, then?’

  He glanced down at her. ‘You are not serious, are you?’

  ‘Not serious? Of course I am serious!’

  ‘If you wish to drive, I will take you in the Park one day,’ he said. ‘I expect I can find a horse – or even a pair – in the stables quiet enough for a lady to drive.’

  ‘Oh, I fear that would never do!’ said Sophy, shaking her head.

  ‘Indeed? Why not?’

  ‘I might excite the horse,’ said Sophy dulcetly.

  He was momentarily taken aback. Then he laughed, and said: ‘I beg your pardon: I had no intention of offending you! But you cannot need a carriage in London. You will no doubt drive out with my mother, and if you should wish to go on some particular errand you may always order one of the carriages to be sent round to the house for your use.’

  ‘That,’ said Sophy, ‘is very obliging of you, but will not suit me quite so well. Where does one buy carriages in London?’

  ‘You will scarcely drive yourself about the town in a curricle!’ he said. ‘Nor do I consider a high-perch phaeton at all a suitable vehicle for a lady. They are not easy to drive. I should not care to see any of my sisters making the attempt.’

  ‘You must remember to tell them so,’ said Sophy affably. ‘Do they mind what you say to them? I never had a brother myself, so I can’t know.’

  There was a slight pause, while Mr Rivenhall, unaccustomed to sudden attacks, recovered his presence of mind. It did not take him very long. ‘It might have been better for you if you had, cousin!’ he said grimly.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Sophy, quite unruffled. ‘The little I have seen of brothers makes me glad that Sir Horace never burdened me with any.’

  ‘Thank you! I know how I may take that, I suppose!’

  ‘Well, I imagine you might, for although you have a great many antiquated notions I don’t think you stupid, precisely.’

  ‘Much obliged! Have you any other criticisms you would care to make?’

  ‘Yes, never fly into a miff when you are driving a high-couraged pair! You took that last corner much too fast.’

  As Mr Rivenhall was accounted something of a Non-pareil, this thrust failed to pierce his armour. ‘What an abominable girl you are!’ he said, much more amiably. ‘Come! We cannot quarrel all the way to Temple Bar! Let us cry a truce!’

  ‘By all means,’ she agreed cordially. ‘Let us rather talk about my carriage. Do I go to Tattersall’s for my horses?’

  ‘Certainly not!’

  ‘Dear cousin Charles, do you wish me to understand that I have the name wrong, or that there is a superior dealer?’

  ‘Neither. What I wish you to understand is that females do not frequent Tattersall’s!’

  ‘Now, is this one of the things you would not like your sisters to do, or would it really be improper in me to go there?’

  ‘Most improper!’

  ‘If you escorted me?’

  ‘I shall do no such thing.’

  ‘Then how shall I manage?’ she demanded. ‘John Potton is an excellent groom, but I would not trust him to buy my horses for me. Indeed, I would not trust anyone, except, perhaps, Sir Horace, who knows exactly what I like.’

  He perceived that she was in earnest, and not, as he had suspected, merely bent on roasting him. ‘Cousin, if nothing will do for you but to drive yourself, I will put my tilbury at your disposal, and choose a suitable horse to go between the shafts.’

  ‘One of your own?’ enquired Sophy.

  ‘None of my horses are at all suitable for you to drive,’ he replied.

  ‘Well, never mind!’ said Sophy. ‘I shall prefer to have my own phaeton-and-pair.’

  ‘Have you the smallest notion what you would have to pay for a well-matched pair?’ he demanded.

  ‘No, tell me! I thought not above three or four hundred pounds?’

  ‘A mere trifle! Your father, of course, would have not the least objection to your squandering three or four hundred pounds on a pair of horses!’

  ‘Not the least, unless I allowed myself to be taken in like a goose, and bought some showy-looking animal for ever throwing out a splint, or a high-stepper found to be touched in the wind at the end of a mile.’

  ‘I advise you to wait until he returns to England, then. He will no doubt choose you the very thing!’ was all Mr Rivenhall would say.

  Rather to his surprise, Sophy appeared to take this in perfectly good part, for she made no comment, and almost immediately desired him to tell her the name of the street they were driving down. She did not refer again to the phaeton-and-pair, and Mr Rivenhall, realizing that she was merely a little spoilt a