“La, Richard,” she yawned, “you are not coming to sit by your cousin, surely? How hot the room is! I am sure it must be nearly time for us to go.”
Miss Hardacre was plying her fan with rapid jerks, and staring contemptuously the while at the dark-eyed Miss Perkaby, who was smiling at Richard across the room.
“Tired! I suppose I look a poor washed-out thing! I have nerves, sir, and a delicate body. It is those heavy women who can foot it till cock-crow. Miss Perkaby dances well, eh, cousin?”
“Does she?” he asked, helplessly, beginning to suspect what had angered this angel of a woman.
“Your dear aunt, sir, hinted that I am getting too old to dance.”
“Yes. And did you notice, Richard, that I was sent down to supper with Dr. Sugg? So you read your poetry to Mary Sugg, cousin, eh? And write verses about Miss Julia Perkaby? Heavens, how hot the room is! I wish the butler would announce our coach.”
Richard, pitifully bewildered, stared at Miss Jilian, and felt that the room was certainly overheated.
“I have never read my poems to Mary Sugg,” he began.
“She thinks them equal to Spenser’s, cousin.”
Richard, very flushed and unhappy, began to suspect the Lady Letitia of mendacity. Mary Sugg had never seen his verses. And the dowager had talked for some time to Jilian, perhaps poisoning the girl’s mind.
“Won’t you go and talk to Miss Perkaby, Richard? I am such a dull creature. Heavens! what is the matter with Sir Peter, yonder?”
A sudden hubbub had arisen at the Lady Letitia’s table. The baronet, a look of overheated indignation on his face, had thrown down his cards and was taking snuff with great vigor. The Lady Letitia was turning over the tricks with a wicked smile in her eyes. Parson Sugg appeared flushed and uncomfortable, while Mrs. Bilson sat bolt upright in her chair. The players at the other tables were glancing curiously at one another.
“See. You did revoke. See, sir, you played a club here.”
Mrs. Bilson uttered a little squeak of indignation, tilted her nose, and stared at the baronet with shocked pity.
“It is evident that my partner has made a mistake, Lady Letitia,” she said, with unpleasant emphasis upon the error.
“Such mistakes will occur,” said Dr. Sugg, mildly.
“I am afraid the wine was rather heavy, Sir Peter. I told Gladden to be chary of the port—”