An idea had occurred to her. She raised her eyes to his face. ‘Do many ladies use snuff, Lord Worth?’
‘No, not many. Some of the more elderly ones.’
She took a pinch from his hand and sniffed it cautiously. ‘I don’t like it very much. My father used King’s Martinique.’
‘I keep a little of it for certain of my guests. Quite a pleasant snuff, but rather light in character.’
She dusted her fingers with her handkerchief. ‘If a lady wished to take snuff for the purpose of being a little out of the way, which would she choose, sir?’
He smiled. ‘She would request either Lord Petersham or Lord Worth to put her up a special recipe to be known as Miss Taverner’s Sort.’
Her eyes gleamed. ‘Will you do that for me?’
‘I will do it for you, Miss Taverner, if you can be trusted to treat it carefully.’
‘What must I do?’
‘You must not drench it with scent, or let it become too dry, or leave your box where it will grow cold. Good snuff is taken with the chill off. Sleep with it under your pillow, and if it needs freshening send it to me. Don’t attempt anything in that way yourself. It is not easily done.’
‘And a snuff-box to match every gown,’ said Miss Taverner thoughtfully.
‘By all means. But learn first how to handle your box. You cannot do better than to observe the methods of Mr Brummell. You will notice that he uses one hand only, the left one, and with peculiar grace.’
She began to draw on her gloves again. ‘I shall be very much obliged to you, sir, if you will have the kindness to make me that recipe,’ she said. She realised how far she had drifted from the real object of her visit, and led the conversation ruthlessly back to it. ‘And you will stop Perry going to gaming hells, and being for ever with this bad set of company?’
‘I am quite unable to stop Peregrine doing either of these things, even if I wished to,’ replied the Earl calmly. ‘A little experience will not hurt him.’
‘I am to understand, then, that you don’t choose to interest yourself in his affairs, sir?’
‘There is not the least likelihood of his attending to me if I did, Miss Taverner.’
‘He could be made to attend to you.’
‘Do not be alarmed, Miss Taverner. When I see the need of making him attend to me I shall do so, beyond all possibility of being ignored.’
She was not satisfied, but it was obviously of no use to urge him further. She took her leave of him. He escorted her to her phaeton, and was about to go back into the house when he heard himself hailed by a couple of horsemen, who chanced at that moment to be trotting by. One was Lord Alvanley, whose round, smiling face was as usual slightly powdered with the snuff that lingered on his rather fat cheeks; the other was Colonel Hanger, a much older man of very rakish mien.
It was he who had hailed Worth. ‘Holà, Worth, so that’s the heiress, hey? Devilish fine girl!’ he cried out as Miss Taverner’s phaeton disappeared down Holles Street. ‘Eighty thousand, ain’t it? Lucky dog, hey? Making a match of it, hey?’
‘You’re so crude, Colonel,’ comp
lained Alvanley.
‘Ay, plain Georgy Hanger, that’s me. Take care some brave boy don’t snatch the filly up from under your nose, Julian!’
‘I will,’ promised the Earl, quite unmoved by this raillery.
The Colonel dug the butt end of his riding-whip at Lord Alvanley. ‘There’s William here, for instance. Now, what d’ye say, William? They do tell me there’s more to it than the eighty thousand if that young brother were to die. Ain’t that so, Julian?’
‘But the chances of death at nineteen are admittedly small,’ said the Earl.
‘Oh, y’never know!’ said the Colonel cheerfully. ‘Better tie her up quick, before another gets her. There’s Browne, now. He could do with a rich wife, I daresay.’
‘If you mean Delabey Browne, I was under the impression that he came into a legacy not so long ago,’ replied the Earl.
‘Yes,’ agreed Lord Alvanley mournfully, ‘but the stupid fellow muddled the whole fortune away paying tradesmen’s bills.’ He nodded to his companion. ‘Come, Colonel, are you ready?’
They rode off together, and Worth went back into the house. It seemed that the Colonel had reason on his side, for within the space of one fortnight his lordship received no less than three applications for permission to solicit Miss Taverner’s hand in marriage.