Part 9 (1/2)
For a week she thought and dreailded French chairs, and then abruptly, as all else, the fancy left her, and she forgot all about it Her mantua-maker's bills were enorht, but she was always so charly penitent that he could not find it in his heart to be angry; and, after all, he reflected, he would rather have his money squandered on her adornment than on that of her brothers She was by turns passionate and cold to hi hi peevishly when he spoke to her
At the beginning of the season he dutifully conducted her to routs and bals o alith either Andrew or Robert, both of ere in town, and whose casual chaperonage she much preferred to Richard's solicitous care Tracy was rarely in London for reatly to Richard's relief, saw but little of him Carstares disliked Colonel Lord Robert Belmanoir, but the Duke he detested, not only for his habitual sneer towards him, but for the influence that he undoubtedly held over Lavinia Richard was intensely jealous of this, and could so himself to be civil when his Grace visited my lady Whether justly or not, he inwardly blamed Tracy for all Lavinia's crazy whims and periodical fits of ill-te to discover this, and with a Lavinia in her extravagance, andon her whenever he was in town
Carstares never knehen not to expect to find hi whatsoever No one ever knehere he was for more than a day at a time, and no one was in the least surprised if he happened to be seen in London when he should, according to all accounts, have been in Paris They lances, ue he was in
So altogether Richard was not sorry when ing for Bath He had secretly hoped that she ht return to Wyncham, but when she expressed no such wish, he stifled his own longing for hoe to Bath, installing her in Queen Square in one of the antly furnished houses in the place
Lady Lavinia was at first charhted with the house, and transported over the excellencies of the new French milliner she had discovered
But the -rooh for the routs she conte for her, and she was subject to constant attacks of the vapours that were as distressing to her household as they were to herself The late hours ave her a cold Furtherly wealthy littlecaused her ood-teilt drawing room one afternoonalas! the craze for French furniture was o'ers-bottle in hand and a bona fide ache in her head, when the door opened and Tracy walked into the room
”Good heavens!” she said faintly, and uncorked her salts
It was his Grace's first appearance since she had come to Bath, and the fact that he had politely declined an invitation that she had sent to him still rankled in her mind He bowed over the limp hand that she extended, and looked her up and down
”I regret to find you thus indisposed, ht Only one of my stupid headaches I am never well here, and this house is stuffy,” she answered fretfully
”You should take the waters,” he said, scrutinising, through his eyeglass, the chair to which she had waved him ”It has an unstable appearance, my dear; I believe I prefer the couch” Hehave you been in Bath?” she demanded
”I arrived last Tuesday week”
Lady Lavinia started up
”Last Tuesday week? Then you have been here ten days and not visitedthe whiteness of his hands through the folds of black lace that drooped over thes to do,” he said coolly
A book of serround as Lavinia jerked a cushi+on into place
”And you come to me when it suits you? How could you be so unkind as to refuse , querulous note in her voice which gave warning of anger
”My dear Lavinia, if you exhibit your deplorable teht you would understand that your good husband's society, iether too oppressive for my taste In fact, I was surprised at your letter”
”Youback again ”I suppose you have been dancing attendance on the Molesly woone crazed”
Understanding caly
”Is that what upsets you? I wondered”
”No, 'tis not!” she flashed ”And I do not see why you should think so! For my part, I cannot see that she is even tolerable, and the way the ! But 'tis always the same when a woman is unattached and wealthy Well!
Well! Why do you not say so; Do you find her so lovely?”
”To tell the truth, my dear, I have barely set eyes on the lady I have been otherwise engaged, and I have done with all women, for the time, save one”
”So I have heard you say before Do you conte little laugh, but it was evident that she was interested
His Grace was not in the least degree ruffled
”I do not contee, Lavinia, so your syirla mere child, for sureand I will not rest until I have her”
”Lord! Another farmer's chit?”
”No, my dear sister, not another farmer's chit A lady”
”God help her! Who is she? Where does she live?”
”She lives in Sussex Her name I shall not tell you”
Her ladyshi+p kicked an offending cushi+on on to the floor, and snapped at him
”Oh, as you please! I shall not die of curiosity!”
”Ah!” The cynical lips curled annoyingly, and Lady Lavinia was seized with a -bottle at hiry with Tracy, so she yawned ostentatiously, and hoped that she irritated hiot no satisfaction from it, for he continued, quite imperturbably: ”She is the daintiest piece ever a man saw, and I'll swear there's blood and fire beneath the ice!”
”Is it possible the girl will have none of your Grace?” wondered Lavinia inhim frown
The thin brows linted a little, while she caught a gli on a sensual under-lip She watched his hand clench on his snuff-box, and exulted silently at having roused him It was a very brief joy, however, for the next moment the frown had disappeared, the hand unclenched, and he was sain
”At present she is cold,” he admitted, ”but I hope that in time she will become more plastic I think, Lavinia, I have so, if capricious sex”
”I don't doubt you have Where did you meet this perverse beauty?”
”In the Pump Roohted She is taller than yourself, and dark Her hair is like a dusky cloud of black, and it ripples off her brow and over her little ears in afashi+on Her eyes are brown, but there are lights in them that are purest amber, and yet they are dark and velvety-”
My lady had recourse to the s-bottle
”But I perceive I weary you A ain at that