'Oh, don't let that weigh with you! I will confidently engage myself to offer you enough provocation to rattle me off in fine style! Don't hesitate to make use of me!'
'Mr Carleton,' she said, with a quivering lip, 'I have already requested you not to be absurd!'
'But didn't I promise to offer you provocation?'
'One of the things I most dislike in you, sir, is your disagreeable habit of always having an answer!' she told him, with considerable acerbity. 'And, in general,' she added, 'a rude one!'
'Come, this is much better!' he said encouragingly. 'You have already rid yourself of some of your spleen! Now tell me exactly what you think of me for having said an unjust thing to you last night, and for having, with such abominable rudeness, left your rout-party! If that doesn't rid you of the rest of your spleen, you can animadvert, more forcefully than you did in the Pump Room that day, on the obliquity of my life and character! And if that doesn't take the trick –'
She interrupted him, the colour flaming into her cheeks. 'I beg you to say no more! I should not have said – what I did say – and I regretted it as soon as the words were out of my mouth, and – and have wished to beg your pardon ever since. But somehow the opportunity to do so never arose. It has arisen now, and – and I do beg your pardon!'
He did not immediately answer her, and, stealing a glance at his face, she saw that that queer smile had twisted his mouth. He said: 'One of the things I most dislike in you, my entrancing hornet, is your unfailing ability to put me at Point Non Plus! I'm damned if I know why I like you so much!'
She was powerfully affected by these words, but made a gallant attempt to pass them off lightly. 'Indeed, I can't think why you should like me, for we have come to points
whenever we have met! And I have a melancholy suspicion that we should continue to do so, however many times we were condemned to meet each other!'
'Have you?' he said, a harsh note in his voice. 'With me it is otherwise!' He saw the instinctive gesture of repulsion she made, and said, with a short, sardonic laugh: 'Oh, don't be afraid! I shall say no more until I have contrived by hedge or by stile to overcome your dislike of me! In the meantime, let us push on to overtake Lucilla and young Elmore.'
'Yes, do let us!' she said, not knowing whether to be glad or sorry for this abrupt change of subject. In an effort to bridge an awkward gap, she said, as she encouraged her mare to break into a canter: 'I must tell you that I shouldn't – I trust! – have allowed my vexation to take such strong possession of me if my cousin Maria had not chosen that most unlucky moment to talk me almost to the gates of Bedlam!'
'That doesn't surprise me at all!' he replied. 'If I were forced to endure more than five minutes of her vapid gibble-gabbling there would be nothing for it but to cut my throat! Or hers,' he added, apparently giving this alternative his consideration. 'No, I think not: the jury, not having been acquainted with her, would probably find me guilty of murder. What shocking injustices are perpetrated in the name of the law! How the case of your cousin brings that home to one! She ought, of course, to have been strangled at birth, but I daresay her parents were wanting in foresight.'
This drew a positive peal of laughter out of Miss Wychwood. She turned her head towards him, her eyes brimful of merriment, and said: 'Oh, how often I have felt the same! She is the most tactless, tedious bore imaginable! When I left Twynham, my brother prevailed on me to employ her as my companion, to lend me countenance, and I have seldom ceased to wonder at myself for having been so want-witted as to have agreed to do it! How horrid I am to say so! Poor Maria! she means so well!'
'Worse you could not say of her! Why don't you send her packing?'
She sighed and shook her head. 'I own, I am often tempted to do so, but I am afraid it isn't possible. Her father, according to what Geoffrey tells me, was sadly improvident, and left her very ill provided for, poor thing. So I couldn't turn her off, could I?'
'You might pension her off,' he suggested.
'And have Geoffrey plaguing my life out to hire another in her place? No, I thank you!'
'Does he do that? Do you permit him to plague you?'
'I can't prevent him! I don't permit him to dictate to me – which is why we are so frequently at outs! He is older than I am, you see, and nothing will ever disabuse his mind of its belief that I am a green and headstrong little sister whom it is his duty to guide, admonish, and protect! Which is, I acknowledge, very admirable, but as vexatious as it is misjudged, and seldom fails to send me up into the boughs!'
'Ah! I thought there was more to his descent on you than his little boy's toothache! He came, in fact, to warn you to have nothing to say to me, didn't he? Does he suspect me of having designs on your virtue? Shall I tell him that his suspicion is groundless?'
'No, certainly not!' she said emphatically. 'I am very well able to deal with Geoffrey myself. Ah, there are the children! Indulge me with a race to overtake them, Mr Carleton! I have been pining these many weeks for a good gallop!'
'Very well, but 'ware rabbit holes.'
'Pooh!' she threw at him, over her shoulder, as the mare lengthened her stride.
She had the start of him, but he overtook her, and they reached the two winning posts neck and neck, and were greeted, by Lucilla with applause, and by Ninian with mock reproach, for having, he said, set Lucilla such a bad example.
'Don't you mean a good example?' enquired Mr Carleton.
'No, sir, I don't, for how the deuce am I to stop her galloping hell-for-leather when she has seen Miss Wychwood doing it?'
'As though you could ever stop me if I choose to gallop!' said Lucilla scornfully. 'You couldn't catch me!'
'Oh, couldn't I? If I had my Blue Devil between my legs we'd soon see that!'
'Blue Devil would never come within lengths of my Lovely Lady! Oh, sir, that is the name I've given her! I thought at first that I would call her Carleton's Choice, but Ninian said he didn't think you would care for that!'
'Then I am very much obliged to him! I should not have cared for it!'