“I wish I may see it!” she replied. “I like Horry. Yes, I do like her, and I did from the start, but if you’d one grain of sense, Marcus, you would take a stick and beat her!”
“But think how fatiguing!” objected the Earl.
She looked scornfully across at him. “I wanted her to lead you a dance,” she said candidly. “I thought it would be very good for you. But I never dreamed she would make herself the talk of the town while you stood by and watched.”
“You see, I hardly ever dance,” Rule excused himself.
Lady Louisa might have replied with some asperity had not a light footstep sounded at that moment in the hall, and the door opened to admit Horatia herself.
She was dressed for the street, but carried her hat in her hand, as though she had just taken it off. She threw it on to a chair, and dutifully embraced her sister-in-law. “I am sorry I was out, L-Louisa. I have been to see M-mama. She is feeling very low, because of having l-lost Lizzie. And Sir P-Peter Mason, whom she quite thought was g-going to offer for Charlotte because he doesn’t like L-levity in a Female, is promised to Miss Lupton after all. M-Marcus, do you think Arnold might like to m-marry Charlotte?”
“For heaven’s sake, Horry,” cried Lady Louisa with foreboding, “don’t ask him!”
Horatia’s straight brows drew together. “N-no, of course not. But I m-might throw them together, I think.”
“Not, I beg of you,” said his lordship, “in this house.”
The grey eyes surveyed him questioningly. “N-not if you would rather I didn’t,” said Horatia obligingly. “I am not set on it, you understand.”