“They did. But the intelligence that you had gone off with young Luttrell merely filled me with misgiving. Confess!”
She twinkled up at him. “Well, perhaps you will not be quite pleased, but indeed I did it all for the best, Richard!”
“This becomes more and more ominous. I am persuaded you have committed some devilry.”
She passed into the parlour, and went to the mirror above the fireplace to pat her crisp, dishevelled curls into order. “Not devilry, precisely,” she demurred.
Sir Richard who had been observing her in some amusement, said: “I am relieved. Yes, I think the sooner you put on your petticoats again the better, Pen. That is a very feminine trick, let me tell you.”
She coloured, laughed, and turned away from the mirror. “I forgot. Well, it doesn’t signify, after all, for it seems to me that I have reached the end of my adventure.”
“Not quite,” he replied.
“Yes, I have. You do not know!”
“You look extremely wicked. Out with it!”
“Piers and Lydia are going to elope to-night!”