Having seen Juliana arrayed for her party in a rose-pink taffeta gown trimmed with chenille silver and spread over immense elbow-hoops; her hair dressed in her favourite Gorgonne style by no less a personage than M. le Gros himself; her person scented with cassia, Miss Challoner bade her farewell and prepared to spend a quiet evening in one of the smaller salons. She intended to apply herself seriously to the problem of escape, but in this she was frustrated by the appearance, not half an hour after Madame de Charbonne’s and Juliana’s departure, of Mr Frederick Comyn.

She had already met Mr Comyn once since their unfortunate encounter at Dieppe, and she supposed that he was apprised of her situation. His manner was extremely respectful, and she thought that she could detect a certain grave sympathy in his gaze.

When the lackey ushered him into the salon she rose, and curtsied to him, and perceived as she did so that his firm mouth was rather tightly compressed. He bowed to her, and said, more as a statement than a question: ‘You are alone, ma’am.’

‘Why yes,’ she answered. ‘Were you not informed at the door, sir, that Miss – that Madame is gone out to-night?’

Mr Comyn said with a touch of gloom: ‘Your first premise was correct, ma’am. It is not Madame de Charbonne that I came hoping to see, but Miss Marling. I was indeed informed that she was gone out, but I ventured to inquire for yourself, ma’am, believing that you would be able to oblige me by divulging Miss Marling’s present whereabouts.’

Miss Challoner begged him to be seated. She had a shrewd notion that all was not entirely well between Miss Marling and her swain. Certain veiled remarks and flighty head-tossings on the part of Juliana had induced her to suppose that Mr Comyn had somehow affronted his lady. She now perceived that Mr Comyn wore the air of a man goaded beyond the limits of forbearance. She would have liked to give him some good advice on the proper way of treating Miss Marling, but feeling that their intimacy was not far enough advanced to permit of this, she merely replied: ‘Certainly, sir. Miss Marling is gone to a ball at the house of – I think – Madame de Saint-Vire.’

She instantly realised from his expression that her frankness was ill-timed. A crease appeared between his brows; there was a distinct grimness in his face, which Miss Challoner privately thought became him rather well. ‘Indeed, ma’am?’ he said levelly. ‘It is as I suspected, then. I’m obliged to you.’

He seemed to be on the point of departure, but Miss Challoner ventured to stay him. ‘Your pardon, Mr Comyn, but I think you are put out?’

He gave a short laugh. ‘Not at all, ma’am. I apprehend that I am merely unaccustomed to the manners obtaining in the Polite World.’

‘Will you not take me a little way into your confidence, sir?’ Mary said gently. ‘Juliana is my friend, and I believe I may say I do in part understand her. If I could be of assistance to you – but I do not wish to appear vulgarly intrusive.’

Mr Comyn hesitated, but the kindness in Miss Challoner’s face induced him to come back into the room, and sit down on a chair beside her. ‘You are very good, ma’am. I believe it is not unknown to you that there exists between Miss Marling and myself a contract to wed, which, though unhappily a secret from the world, I at least have regarded as binding.’

‘Yes, sir, I know, and I wish you very happy,’ said Mary.

‘Thank you, ma’am. Before I set foot in this town – a circumstance I am fast coming to regret – I should have received your extremely obliging good wishes with a gratitude unalloyed by misgiving. Now –’ He stopped, and Miss Challoner watched the meticulous gentleman merge into an angry and scowling young man. ‘I can only suppose, ma’am, that Miss Marling has, upon reflection, perceived the force of her parent’s arguments, and decided to bestow her hand elsewhere.’

‘No, sir, that I am sure she has not,’ Mary said.

He looked at her in a hurt way that touched her. ‘When I tell you, ma’am, that from the moment of my arrival in Paris Miss Marling has persistently encouraged the advances of a certain French gentleman not unconnected with her family, and has upon every occasion preferred his company to mine, you will hardly assure me that her affections are unchanged.’

‘But I do, sir,’ Mary said earnestly. ‘I do not know how she may have behaved to you, but you must bear in mind that she is as wilful as she is pretty, and delights, perhaps unwisely, in provoking people with her teasing ways. The gentleman you ref

er to is, I take it, the Vicomte de Valmé. I believe you have no need to feel alarm, Mr Comyn. The Vicomte is no doubt entertaining, and his address is insinuating. But he is nothing but a rattle, when all is said, and I do not think for an instant that Juliana cares a fig for him.’

‘You know the Vicomte, ma’am?’ said Mr Comyn quickly.

‘I have met him, sir.’

Mr Comyn said in a repressed voice: ‘You have been an inmate of this house for two days, ma’am, and I understand from Juliana that you do not go out. I infer therefore that you have met the Vicomte here – within the past forty-eight hours.’

Miss Challoner said cautiously: ‘And if I have, sir, what is there in that to annoy you?’

‘Only,’ replied Mr Comyn sharply, ‘that Juliana denied that de Valmé had visited her here.’

Miss Challoner, feeling very guilty, could think of nothing to say. Mr Comyn, rather pale about the mouth, said bitingly: ‘It is all of a piece. I begged Juliana, if she cared for me, not to be present to-night at a ball given by the Vicomte’s parents. It was a test of her affection which I, foolishly, believed would not be too severe. I was wrong, ma’am. Juliana has been playing with me – I had almost said flirting with me.’

Miss Challoner, feeling that it was time someone took the young couple in hand, proceeded to give Mr Comyn her good advice on the management of a spoiled beauty. She tried to make him understand – but with indifferent success, since she did not understand it herself – that Juliana was so high-spirited that a breath of opposition induced her to behave outrageously. She told Mr Comyn that to reproach Juliana, or to remonstrate with her was to drive her into her naughtiest mood. ‘She is romantic, Mr Comyn, and if you desire to win her you should let her see that you are a man who will not brook her trifling. Juliana would love you to run off with her by force, but when you are gentle, sir, and respectful, she becomes impatient.’

‘You suggest, in fact, ma’am, that I should abduct Miss Marling? I fear I am quite unlearned in such ways. Her cousin, the Marquis of Vidal, would no doubt oblige her.’

Miss Challoner coloured, and looked away. Mr Comyn, realising what he had said, coloured too, and begged her pardon. ‘I did not desire to elope with her, even were she willing,’ he continued hurriedly. ‘But she deemed it our best course, and when I was urged to it by a member of her family, I allowed my scruples to be overruled, and came to Paris with the express intention of arranging a secret marriage.’

‘Well, arrange it, sir,’ Miss Challoner advised him.

‘I had almost done so, ma’am. I may say that I bear in my pocket at this moment the direction of an English divine at present travelling through France on his way to Italy. I came here to-night expecting to see Juliana, and to tell her that we have nothing more to wait for. And I find that she has gone, in defiance of my expressed wish, to a ball where the chief – the sole attraction is the Vicomte de Valmé. Madam, I can only designate such conduct as heartless in the extreme.’

Miss Challoner paid very little heed to the last part of this speech, but said rather breathlessly: ‘You know of an English divine? Oh pray, sir, have you told my Lord Vidal?’

‘No, ma’am, for –’

Tags: Georgette Heyer Alastair-Audley Tetralogy Romance
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