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Authors: Georgette Heyer
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substance than mine?’
‘Ay, I don’t doubt she would,’ replied Mr Chawleigh frankly. ‘But she didn’t want for sense, and she’d have seen as fast as I did that it was no manner of use thinking of Marquises and Earls for a girl like Jenny. Mind, no expense was spared on her rearing! I’m no muckworm, and I never grudged a groat of the fortune I spent on educating her! And this I will say, I got her turned out in prime style! Every inch a lady she is! She had all the extras: pianoforte, singing, dancing, French and Italian, watercolour painting, use of the backboard – everything! And as for book-learning, why, I often say she’s as good as an almanack! I sent her to school in Kensington, you know. She didn’t like it above half: wanted to stay at home with me, but I knew better than to let her do that. I could have got governesses for her, and dancing-masters, and the rest, but that wouldn’t have helped her to rub shoulders with the nobs, would it? Which is what she has done, make no mistake about it! Ay, I sent her to Miss Satterleigh’s Seminary for the Daughters of Gentlemen.’ A rumbling laugh shook him. ‘If I was to tell you what it cost me, first and last, my lord, you wouldn’t credit it! A Bluestocking, that’s what that tabby is supposed to be, but what I say is that she should have set up a two-to-one shop instead of a school, for a bigger lickpenny I wish I may never meet! Held up her long nose at my Jenny she did, until I let her know how full of juice I was. After that –’ He paused, caressing his chin, and grinning reflectively. ‘Well, I’ve got to own she was a damned knowing one! There’s not many can boast of having put the change on Jonathan Chawleigh, but she did it, just as soon as she saw I was ready to pay through the nose for what I wanted. Which I did, I promise you. However, I don’t grudge it to her, because, though it didn’t answer as well as I’d hoped for, that wasn’t her fault.’ He sat in ruminative silence for a moment or two, before disclosing, in a burst of confidence: ‘You won’t find me puffing off my goods above their value, so I don’t mean to tell you my Jenny’s a beauty, because she ain’t. Mind you, she’s by no means an antidote: not squinney, nor buttertoothed, nor anything of that kind! I’m bound to own, though, that she don’t take. She’s quiet, you see, and as shy as be-damned. That’s what floored me, and I don’t deny there’s been times when I was downright vexed with her, for she hasn’t lacked for chances to get arm-in-armly with the nobs, if she’d only made a push to do it, instead of shrinking into a corner, and staying dumb as a mouse, so that no one so much as noticed her. Now, if she’d been of Miss Julia’s cut – ! There’s a beauty for you! She don’t lack for suitors, I’ll warrant you an egg at Easter! Ay, that was the one friendship Jenny struck up at school that did make me feel hopeful. The lord knows what made ’em take a fancy to each other, for they ain’t a bit alike, setting aside that my Jenny’s two years older than Miss Julia. That was how I came to be acquainted with my Lord Oversley. Well, I was able to do him a good turn at a time when he was in bad loaf, which put him, as you might say, under a bit of an obligation. Now, him and me’s as different as chalk from cheese, but we got to be pretty friendly. He’s a man I like, and one as I can talk to without roundaboutation, which I did, telling him straight what I wanted for my girl. Of course, I wasn’t looking to him to find a lord for Jenny, but what I did want, and what I got, was for my Lady Oversley to put her in the way of meeting a lord or two. There’s no one could have been kinder: that I will say! She had my Jenny to all manner of grand parties, besides inviting her just to spend the day with Miss Julia, the way she’d get acquainted with all the swells that came there paying morning visits, and the like. It ain’t her blame
‘Ay, I don’t doubt she would,’ replied Mr Chawleigh frankly. ‘But she didn’t want for sense, and she’d have seen as fast as I did that it was no manner of use thinking of Marquises and Earls for a girl like Jenny. Mind, no expense was spared on her rearing! I’m no muckworm, and I never grudged a groat of the fortune I spent on educating her! And this I will say, I got her turned out in prime style! Every inch a lady she is! She had all the extras: pianoforte, singing, dancing, French and Italian, watercolour painting, use of the backboard – everything! And as for book-learning, why, I often say she’s as good as an almanack! I sent her to school in Kensington, you know. She didn’t like it above half: wanted to stay at home with me, but I knew better than to let her do that. I could have got governesses for her, and dancing-masters, and the rest, but that wouldn’t have helped her to rub shoulders with the nobs, would it? Which is what she has done, make no mistake about it! Ay, I sent her to Miss Satterleigh’s Seminary for the Daughters of Gentlemen.’ A rumbling laugh shook him. ‘If I was to tell you what it cost me, first and last, my lord, you wouldn’t credit it! A Bluestocking, that’s what that tabby is supposed to be, but what I say is that she should have set up a two-to-one shop instead of a school, for a bigger lickpenny I wish I may never meet! Held up her long nose at my Jenny she did, until I let her know how full of juice I was. After that –’ He paused, caressing his chin, and grinning reflectively. ‘Well, I’ve got to own she was a damned knowing one! There’s not many can boast of having put the change on Jonathan Chawleigh, but she did it, just as soon as she saw I was ready to pay through the nose for what I wanted. Which I did, I promise you. However, I don’t grudge it to her, because, though it didn’t answer as well as I’d hoped for, that wasn’t her fault.’ He sat in ruminative silence for a moment or two, before disclosing, in a burst of confidence: ‘You won’t find me puffing off my goods above their value, so I don’t mean to tell you my Jenny’s a beauty, because she ain’t. Mind you, she’s by no means an antidote: not squinney, nor buttertoothed, nor anything of that kind! I’m bound to own, though, that she don’t take. She’s quiet, you see, and as shy as be-damned. That’s what floored me, and I don’t deny there’s been times when I was downright vexed with her, for she hasn’t lacked for chances to get arm-in-armly with the nobs, if she’d only made a push to do it, instead of shrinking into a corner, and staying dumb as a mouse, so that no one so much as noticed her. Now, if she’d been of Miss Julia’s cut – ! There’s a beauty for you! She don’t lack for suitors, I’ll warrant you an egg at Easter! Ay, that was the one friendship Jenny struck up at school that did make me feel hopeful. The lord knows what made ’em take a fancy to each other, for they ain’t a bit alike, setting aside that my Jenny’s two years older than Miss Julia. That was how I came to be acquainted with my Lord Oversley. Well, I was able to do him a good turn at a time when he was in bad loaf, which put him, as you might say, under a bit of an obligation. Now, him and me’s as different as chalk from cheese, but we got to be pretty friendly. He’s a man I like, and one as I can talk to without roundaboutation, which I did, telling him straight what I wanted for my girl. Of course, I wasn’t looking to him to find a lord for Jenny, but what I did want, and what I got, was for my Lady Oversley to put her in the way of meeting a lord or two. There’s no one could have been kinder: that I will say! She had my Jenny to all manner of grand parties, besides inviting her just to spend the day with Miss Julia, the way she’d get acquainted with all the swells that came there paying morning visits, and the like. It ain’t her blame
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