“Do you know,” he said seriously, “you are the most startling female it has ever been my fortune to meet? You will observe that I do not say good or ill fortune, for I haven’t the smallest notion which it will prove to be!”
She laughed. “But will you do what I tell you?”
“Yes,” he replied. “To the best of my poor ability. But I wish I knew the extent of the dark scheme you are revolving in your head.”
She turned her head to look at him, her expressive eyes questioning, and at the same time acknowledging a hit. “But I have told you!”
“I have a notion there is more to it than what you have told me.”
She looked mischievous, but would only shake her head.
They had reached the Stanhope Gate again, and she reined in, holding out her hand. “I must go now. Pray don’t be afraid of me! I never do people any harm — indeed I don’t! Good-by! At about four o’clock, mind.”
She reached Berkeley Square again to find the house in a state of considerable uneasiness, Lord Ombersley, informed by his wife of Cecilia’s overnight announcement, having flown into a passion of exasperation at the folly, ingratitude, and selfishness of daughters; and Hubert and Theodore between them having chosen this singularly inappropriate moment to allow Jacko to escape from the schoolroom.
Sophy was met on her arrival by various distracted persons, who lost no time in pouring their woes or grievances into her ears. Cecilia, shaken by the interview with her father, wanted to carry her off instantly to the seclusion of her bedchamber; Miss Adderbury wished to explain that she had repeatedly warned Mr. Hubert not to excite the monkey; Theodore desired to impress upon everyone that it had all been Hubert’s fault; Hubert demanded that she should help him to recover the monkey before its escape came to Charles’s ears; Dassett, having observed with disfavor the enthusiasm with which both footmen entered into the chase, delivered himself of an icily civil monologue, the gist of which seemed to be that wild animals roaming at large in a nobleman’s residence were not what he had been accustomed to or what he could bring himself to tolerate.
As this speech contained a dark threat to inform His Lordship instantly, it appeared to Sophy that her most pressing duty was to soothe Dassett’s feelings, half a dozen persons having informed her that Lord Ombersley was in a dreadful temper. So she told Cecilia that she could come to her room presently, and considerably mollified the butler by rejecting the services of the footmen. Cecilia, who besides her interview with Lord Ombersley, had endured a few moments with her elder brother, and half an hour with Lady Ombersley, was in no mood for monkeys, and said, rather hysterically, that she supposed she might have expected that Jacko would be thought of more importance than herself. Selina, who was thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of drama and impending doom that hung over the house, hissed, “H’sh! Charles is in the library!” Cecilia retorted that she did not care where he was and rushed upstairs to her bedroom.