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from such an unexceptionable base as her sister, married to Lord Derwent, would provide. What was the point of hiring a set of rooms in some apartment house in Upper Grosvenor Square? She wanted Melanie’s marriage for her sister’s sake, and there was no reason a small benefit should not trickle down to Sally. Melanie would marry Derwent, and she would visit them. Strong as the temptation was to come to cuffs with Monstuart, she would behave with the greatest propriety he had ever seen. She would utter not a word that might not be said before the twelve apostles and their mothers.
    The next meeting with him would be her mother’s dinner party. She would make Mr. Heppleworth her dinner partner and her conversation partner after dinner. It would take a miracle to make Mr. Heppleworth misbehave, but she must not encourage the old fool to think she loved him. Let Lord Monstuart raise his black brows and quiz her as much as he liked; she would not be betrayed into impropriety.
     

Chapter Six
     
    No definite meeting between Derwent and Melanie was set for any time before the dinner party, but there was a general expectation that he would not allow nearly twenty-four hours to roll by without a glimpse of his beloved, nor did he. He was there the next morning at ten forty-five, striking a balance between his own preferred time and that of his uncle, who was again with him. Monstuart’s city barbering and tailoring received no smiling welcome this morning. Sally sat silent in a corner, determined to be civil. He asked her to drive out again, and she bit back the rejoinder that she was surprised he should suggest it, when yesterday’s drive gave him so little pleasure.
    “I’m afraid I’m busy this morning,”she replied. From having been in the saloon since ten-thirty, waiting for him, she knew the gentlemen had come in two carriages, and her going was not necessary. She did wonder why he wanted to be alone with her and could only conclude he intended to step up his plan of luring her into indiscretion.
    “Setting up a new tambour frame?”he asked politely.
    “It is my sister and Mama who are the needlewomen,”she reminded him.
    “And you, if memory serves, like reading. What book have you discovered that you can’t be drawn away? Byron—it must be Byron. You have not fallen behind in your literary fashion, at any rate. All the young ladies are hiding the new cantos of Childe Harold from their mamas.”
    “I am reading a very exciting drama by Hannah More,”she said, lying through her teeth and enjoying it.
    Monstuart looked for a telltale movement of her lips and saw only a prim line. “Exciting in the same sentence as Hannah More? That sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.”
    “I enjoy her uplifting theological exercises.”
    Monstuart didn’t answer immediately but just lifted his quizzing glass and stared at her till she became nervous. “I had hoped you might be kind enough to accompany me to Canterbury,”he said next.
    The weather was particularly fine. A drive of fifteen or so miles to Canterbury in Monstuart’s elegant carriage and luncheon at a restaurant were a strong inducement. But as the outing offered so much opportunity for pertness, Sally declined.
    He never for a moment thought he was really being refused. She was playing hard to get, a game he knew well and rather enjoyed. “We could visit the cathedral—Hannah More would approve of that,”he tempted with a smile that had nothing to do with cathedrals.
    Sally thought Hannah herself would find that smile hard to resist, but she was made of sterner stuff. “Living so close, we have toured the cathedral several times. I do recommend it to you, however, if you haven’t been there. It is considered a particularly fine example of perpendicular architecture, I believe.”
    “I’ve paid my duty visit to admire it. That removes the onus of having to do so today. My real reason for the trip is to visit an everything store and find some