Black Sheep

'Of course it isn't!' she interrupted impulsively. 'I mean – Oh, what a detestable man you are!'

'Well, if that's what you meant to say you must have a very hubble-bubble mind!' he commented. 'I may be detestable – in fact, I know I am – but what has that to say to anything?' He added, as she resolutely bit her lip: 'Yes, do laugh! You have a pretty laugh, and I like the way your eyes dance.'

Guiltily aware that this very improper speech had pleased rather than offended her, she said, as coolly as she could: 'We were discussing the Weaverhams, I think. They are very kind, worthy people, and although they are not – not the pink of gentility, they are generally well-liked.'

'Full of juice, eh?' he said, showing at once his understanding and his disregard for polite ambiguities. 'Where did they pick up the title? In the City?'

'I don't know. Sir Joshua certainly was engaged in Trade, until he retired – they make no secret of that – but – but in a perfectly respectable way!'

'No need to defend him,' he said kindly. 'I've been engaged in trade myself, though I daresay you wouldn't say respectably.'

'I should be astonished if I discovered that you had done anything respectably!' declared Abby, goaded into retort. Shocked by her own lapse from propriety, she was thankful to see that they had reached York House, and added hastily: 'Our ways part here, sir, so I will say goodbye!'

'No, don't! it would be premature! I'm going to escort you to your home.'

'I am obliged to you, but it is quite unnecessary, I assure you!'

She had stopped by the entrance to the hotel, and held out her hand, repeating; 'Goodbye, Mr Calverleigh!'

'If you imagine that I am going to walk behind you, like a footman, all the way to Sydney Place, you are mightily mistaken, Miss Abigail Wendover!' he said, taking her hand, and drawing it within his arm. 'Is it now the established mode for young females to jaunter about the town unattended? It wasn't so when I lived in England!'

'I am not a young female, and I don't jaunter!' replied Abby hotly, pulling her hand away, but walking on beside him. 'Times have changed since you lived in England, sir!'

'Yes, alas, and not for the better!' he agreed, in a mournful tone. 'Bear with my foibles, ma'am! Being yourself stricken in years, that shouldn't be difficult!'

A chuckle escaped her. 'Don't be so absurd!' she admonished him. 'I may not be stricken in years, but I am no longer of an age when I need chaperonage. I don't care to let Fanny go out alone, though I know several mothers who see no objection to it here. Not in London, of course.' She paused, and said, after a moment: 'May I request you, sir, to take care what you say to Fanny? Since you have seen fit to inform her that you knew her mother very well, she may try to talk to you about Celia, and she is sufficiently needle-witted to add two and two together. I'm aware that you did it to put me in a quake, but,

having

succeeded, pray be satisfied!'

He laughed. 'No, no! just bantering you a little! You were looking such daggers at me that I couldn't resist!'

'Chivalrous!' she remarked.

'Not a bit! I warned you that there's no virtue in me.'

'Then why do you insist on escorting me home?'

'Because I want to escort you home, of course. What a birdwitted question!'

Her eyes began to dance, and her lips to quiver. 'You know, you are the most provoking creature I ever encountered!' she told him.

'Oh, come, now, that's doing it rather too brown!' he expostulated. 'Remember, I was acquainted with your brother Rowland! I never saw much of James, but I shouldn't wonder at it if he's as bad. Or don't you find consequential bores provoking?'

'If I didn't believe you to be dead to all proper feeling,' said Abby, in a shaking voice, 'I should endeavour to point out to you that that is a – an abominable thing to say!'

'Well, thank God you do realise it!' he replied. 'Now we shall go on much more comfortably!'

'No we shan't. Not until you stop trying to hoax me into thinking you are uniformly odious! Pray, did you bring Oliver Grayshott home because you wanted to?'

'Yes, I like the boy. Don't you?'

'Yes, I daresay, but –'

'Now, don't run away with the notion that I came back to England on his account!' he admonished her. 'Nothing could be farther from the truth! All I did was to take charge of him on the voyage: no very arduous task!'

'And subsequently put yourself to the trouble of bringing him down to Bath,' said Abby pensively.