Lady Winwood looked round apprehensively for her salts, but perceiving that his lordship was laughing, changed her mind. “My baby... !” She said indulgently: “As you see, my lord, she is all unspoiled.”
She did not leave the newly-plighted pair alone, and the Earl presently took his leave with equal correctness. The front door had barely closed behind him before Lady Winwood had clasped Horatia in fond embrace. “Dearest child!” she said. “You are very, very fortunate! So personable a man! Such delicacy!”
Charlotte put her head round the door. “May we come in, Mama? Has he really offered for Horry?”
Lady Winwood dabbed at her eyes again. “He is everything that I could wish for! Such refinement! Such ton!”
Elizabeth had taken Horatia’s hand, but Charlotte said practically : “Well, for my part, I think he must be doting. And repulsive as the thought is, I suppose the Settlements... ?”
“He is all that is generous!” sighed Lady Winwood.
“Then I’m sure I wish you joy, Horry,” said Charlotte. “Though I must say that I consider you far too young and heedless to become the wife of any gentleman. And I only pray that Theresa Maulfrey will have enough proper feeling to refrain from chattering about this awkward business.”
It did not seem at first as though Mrs Maulfrey would be able to hold her tongue. Upon the announcement of the betrothal she came to South Street, just as her cousins knew she would, all agog to hear the whole story. She was palpably dissatisfied with Elizabeth’s careful tale of “a mistake’, and demanded to know the truth. Lady Winwood, rising for once to the occasion, announced that the matter had been arranged by herself and his lordship, who had met Horatia and been straightway captivated by her.
With this Mrs Maulfrey had to be content, and after condoling with Elizabeth on having lost an Earl only to get a lieutenant in exchange, and with Charlotte on being left a spinster while a chit from the schoolroom made the match of the season, she departed, leaving a sense of relief behind her, and a strong odour of violet scent.
Charlotte opined darkly that no good would come of Horatia’s scandalously contrived marriage. But Charlotte was alone in her pessimism. A radiant Mr Heron, fervently grasping both Horatia’s hands, thanked her from the heart, and wished her happiness. Mr Heron had had the honour of meeting Lord Rule at an extremely select soiree in South Street, and his lordship had roused himself to take the young man aside and talk to him of his future. Mr Heron had no hesitation in declaring the Earl to be a very good sort of a man indeed, and no further remarks concerning his reputation or his advanced years were heard to pass his lips. Elizabeth, too, who had been forced to nerve herself to meet her erstwhile suitor, found the ordeal shorn of its terrors. My lord kissed her hand, and as he released it said with his slight, not unpleasing drawl: “May I hope, Miss Winwood, that I am no longer an ogre?”