“No, indeed!” she said warmly. “For you to be telling tales of her brother to Miss Wraxton would be the shabbiest thing!”
He was leaning his arm along the mantelpiece and had been looking down into the fire, but at that he raised his head, and shot a penetrating glance at Sophy. She thought there was a good deal of comprehension in his eyes, but he only said, “Just so, Cousin.”
“Do not refine too much upon it!” she advised him kindly. “I do not mean to say that Cecy has a tendre for him, for she thinks him even more odious than I do.”
“I am well aware that she has no tendre for him. I thank you!” he retorted. “She is infatuated with that puppy, Fawnhope!”
“Of course she is,” said Sophy.
“I am also aware that you have made it your business from the day you entered this house to encourage this folly by every means within your reach! You and Cecilia have been constantly seen in Fawnhope’s company; you pretended he was a friend of yours so that he might have an excuse for calling here six days out of the seven; you — ”
“In a word, Charles, I have thrown them continually together. I have, and if you had a grain of sense you would have done so weeks before I came to town!”
He was arrested for a moment, and then asked incredulously, “Do you imagine by doing so you will cure Cecilia? Or that I am likely to believe you have any such intention in mind?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she answered, giving the matter some thought. “One of two things must happen, you know. Either she will grow weary of Augustus — and I must say I do think that very probable, because although he is so handsome and can be very engaging when he chooses, he is shockingly tiresome, besides forgetting Cecilia’s existence just when he should be most solicitous — or she will continue to love him, in spite of his faults. And if that happens, Charles, you will know that it is not an infatuation, and you will be obliged to consent to their marriage.”
“Never!” he said, with considerable violence.