“Dear me, no, Perry! What should put such a notion into your head?”
“I thought you seemed to like him very well.”
“Why, so I do! I am sure everyone must.”
“Well, I will tell you what, Ju: I should not mind it if you did marry him. He is a capital fellow.”
She smiled. “Certainly; but he is not at all the sort of man I could fancy myself in love with. There is a volatility, a habit of being too generally pleasing which much preclude my taking him in any very serious spirit.”
“I am sure he is in love with you.”
“And I am sure he is as much in love with any other passable-looking female,” replied Miss Taverner.
The matter was allowed to drop. Towards the end of January the Taverners were in London again, only to set forth a week later for Osterley Park. Even Peregrine, who had plunged once more into the pleasures of town, thought an invitation from Lady Jersey too flattering to be declined. He raised no objection, and, indeed, after settling-day at Tatter-sail’s was inclined to think that a further stay in the country would be a very good thing.
“Yes,” agreed his cousin dryly. “A very good thing if at the end of one week in town you can tell me you are floored.”
“Oh, well!” replied Peregrine. “It is not as bad as that, I daresay. I have had shocking bad luck, to be sure. Fitz gave me the office to back Kiss-in-a-Corner. I turned the brute up in Baily’s Calendar—a capital steeplechaser! Yet what should win that particular race but Turn-About-Tommy, whom I’ll swear no one had ever heard of! Never was there such ill-luck! I am not so well up in the stirrups as I should like, but I daresay my luck will have turned by the time I am back from Osterley.”