Frederica by Georgette Heyer Page A

housekeeper, and our butler. That was another stroke of good fortune, because Mrs Hurley, and dear old Buddle, would never have consented to remain at Graynard in the employment of anyone but a Merriville. So we were able to bring them to London with us; and although they despise London, and are for ever telling me what a horrid house this is, and furnished in the most rubbishing style; and complaining that London servants are a chuck-farthing set, it is the greatest comfort to have them with us! And I must say,” she added candidly, “it is ahorrid house, and not situated, as I’ve discovered, in the modish part of town. Never having visited London, I asked my Aunt Scrabster to procure a furnished house for me. That was a mistake. She lives in Harley Street herself, and I find that this district is almost entirely inhabited by persons engaged in trade. However, I am told that the most extortionate rents are demanded for houses in Mayfair, besides fines upon entrance, so I don’t repine. The worst mistake I made was believing that my aunt had either the power or the desire to introduce us to the ton!” She smiled. “My tongue runs like a fiddlestick, doesn’t it? The round tale is that my aunt and uncle, being childless, have never made any attempt to live in a—in a fashionable way; and poor Aunt Amelia was never more dismayed than when I informed her of my decision to come to London for the season! That, sir, is why I was forced to apply to you.”
    He had been meditatively tapping the lid of his snuffbox, and he now flicked it open, and, frowning slightly, took a pinch, while Frederica watched him, not un-hopefully. He shut the box, dusted his long fingers, and at last looked at her, still frowning. “You would be well advised to be content with something less than the first circle of society,” he said bluntly.
    “Are we so ineligible?” she demanded.
    “By birth, no. In all other respects, yes. I don’t know what your pecuniary resources may be, but—”
    “Enough!”
    “If you are thinking of a Court presentation for your sister you would do better to fund your money: it’s an investment that would yield you no dividend.”
    “I know that, and I don’t think of it.”
    “What, then?”
    She clasped her hands together in her lap, and said, a little breathlessly: “Almack’s!”
    “You are aiming at the moon, Miss Merriville. No introduction of mine would help you to cross that hallowed threshold! Unless you number amongst your acquaintances some matron possessing the entree, who would be willing to sponsor you—”
    “I don’t. If that had been the case I shouldn’t have sought your assistance. But I won’t cry craven! Somehow I shall manage—see if I don’t!”
    He rose politely, saying: “I hope you may. If you think my advice of value, may I suggest that you would have a better chance of success if you were to remove to one of the watering-places? Bath, or Tunbridge Wells, where you may attend the assemblies, and would no doubt meet persons of consideration.”
    She too rose, but before she could answer him she was interrupted by the sound of hasty footsteps on the stairs. The next instant a sturdy schoolboy burst into the room, exclaiming: “Frederica, it was nothing but a fudge! We searched all over, and I asked people, and no one knew anything about it!”
    IV
    Miss Merriville, unperturbed by the irruption into her drawing-room of a young gentleman who had contrived to acquire, since she had last seen him some three hours earlier, a crumpled and grubby collar and muddied nankeens, responded with quick sympathy: “Oh, no! How wretched for you! But it can’t have been a fudge, Felix! It was Mr Rushbury who told you about it, and he wouldn’t have hoaxed you!”
    By this time Master Felix Merriville had taken cursory stock of the Marquis, but he would undoubtedly have poured forth the story of his morning’s Odyssey to his sister had he not been quelled by another, and older,