Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Author:Georgette Heyer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, Sophy driving Cecilia in Hyde Park in her phaeton, setting her down to enjoy a stroll with Mr Fawnhope, encountered by previous arrangement by the Riding House, and taking up in her stead Sir Vincent Talgarth, who only deserted her when he perceived the Marquesa de Villacañas’s barouche drawn up beside the rails that separated Rotten Row from the carriageway. The Marquesa, who was attracting no little attention by the number and height of the curled ostrich plumes in her hat, welcomed him with her lazy smile, and told Sophy that she found the shops in London wholly inferior to those in Paris. Nothing she had seen in Bond Street that day had tempted her to undo her purse-strings. But Sir Vincent knew of a modiste in Bruton Street who might be trusted to recognize at a glance the style and quality of such a customer, and he offered to escort the Marquesa to her establishment.

Sophy knit her brows a little over this, but before she had time to think much on the subject her attention was claimed by Lord Bromford. Civility obliged her to invite him to take a turn about the Park in her phaeton. He got up beside her, and after telling her how much enjoyment he had derived from the Ombersley ball, made her a formal offer of marriage. Sophy declined this, without hesitation and without embarrassment. Lord Bromford, disconcerted only for a minute, said that his ardour had made him too precipitate, but that he did not despair of a happy issue. ‘When your parent returns to these shores,’ he pronounced, ‘I shall formally apply to him for leave to address you. You are very right to insist upon so much propriety, and I must beg your pardon for having contravened the laws of etiquette. Only the strong passion under which I labour – and I must tell you that not the most forceful representations of my mother, a Being to whom I, in filial duty, tender the most profound respect, have had the power to alter my decision – only, as I have said, this passion could have induced me to forget –’

‘I think,’ said Sophy, ‘that you should take your seat in the House of Lords. Have you done so?’

‘It is strange,’ responded his lordship, swelling slightly, ‘that you should ask me that question, for I am upon the point of doing so. I shall be presented by a sponsor no less distinguished for his high lineage than for his forensic attainments, and I trust –’

‘I have no doubt at all that you are destined to become a great man,’ said Sophy. ‘No matter how lengthy, or how involved your periods, you never lose yourself in them! How charming the foliage is on those beech trees! Do you know any tree to rival the beech? I am sure I do not!’

‘Certainly a graceful tree,’ conceded Lord Bromford, patronizing the beech. ‘Hardly, however, to rank in majesty with the mahogany, which grows in the West Indies; or in usefulness with the lancewood.

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