“But you will,” she insisted. “It would be wicked to try to force her into another marriage, and you would be cruel to attempt it.”
“I shall not force her into any marriage!” he flashed. “It may interest you to know that I am extremely attached to Cecilia, and that it is for that reason, and not for any whim of my own, that I will not countenance her union with a man of Fawnhope’s stamp! As for this glib notion you have, that by throwing them together you will make Cecilia tire of him, you were never more mistaken! So far from tiring of his company, Cecilia seizes every opportunity to be alone with him! She is even so lost to all sense of propriety as to make Addy her dupe! Only this afternoon Miss Wraxton came upon her in a secluded path in the Park, alone with Fawnhope, having shaken off the restraint of Addy’s presence. Clandestine meetings! Pretty behavior in Miss Rivenhall of Ombersley, upon my word!”
“My dear Charles,” said Sophy, with unimpaired calm, “you know very well that you are making that up.”
“I am doing no such thing! Do you imagine I would make up such a tale about my sister?”
“To own the truth, I think you would do anything when you are in one of your rages,” she said, smiling. “There is no secret about her having walked with Fawnhope, but the rest of it springs from your disordered temper. Now, do not say that Miss Wraxton told you it was so, because I am sure she would never have told you such fibs about Cecilia! Shaken Addy off, indeed! She was never out of Addy’s sight for a moment! Good gracious, don’t you know Cecilia better than to be accusing her of clandestine behavior? What a very vulgar expression to use, to be sure! Do stop making such a cake of yourself! Next you will be ranting at Cecy for having allowed a respectable young man whom she has known, I daresay, since they were both children, to walk a little way beside her, under the eyes of her governess!”
Again she came under that hard scrutiny. “Do you know this for a fact?” he asked, in an altered tone.
“Certainly I do, for Cecy told me just what had occurred. It seems that Miss Wraxton said something to Addy which distressed her very much — no doubt she misunderstood it, Miss Wraxton perhaps felt that Addy should have sent Augustus about his business, though how she could have done so I hardly know! But she has a great deal of sensibility, you know, and is readily upset.”
He looked annoyed, and said, “Addy is not to be blamed; Cecilia is out of her control, and if she should have told my mother of these meetings — well, she was never one to carry tales of any of us!”
She said coaxingly, “Do show her that you are not angry with her, Charles, and don’t mean to turn her off after all these years!”
“Turn her off?” he echoed, astonished. “What nonsense is this, pray?”