Free The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

rather to welcome her entrance into the discussion.
    Sophy enthusiastically applauded Cecilia’s taste, announcing that her copy of The Corsair was so well worn as to be in danger of disintegrating. Miss Wraxton said that she was unable to give an opinion on the merits of this poem, as her mama did not care to have any of his lordship’s works in the house. Since Lord Byron’s marital difficulties were among the most scandalous on dit of the town—it being widely rumored that he was, at the earnest solicitations of his friends, on the point of leaving the country—this remark at once made the discussion seem undesirably raffish, and everyone was relieved when Hubert, disclaiming any liking for poetry, went into raptures over the capital novel, Waverley .
    Here again Miss Wraxton was unable to edify the company with any measured criticism, but she graciously said that she believed the work in question to be, for a novel, quite unexceptionable. Lord Ombersley then said that they were all very bookish, but Ruff’s Guide to the Turf was good enough reading for him, and drew Sophy out of the conversation by asking her a great many questions about old friends of his own whom, since they now adorned various embassies, she might be counted upon to know.
    After dinner, Lord Ombersley put in no appearance in the drawing room, the claims of faro being too insistent to be ignored, and Miss Wraxton very prettily begged that the children might be permitted to come downstairs, adding, with a smile cast upward at Charles, that she had not had the felicity of seeing her little friend Theodore since he had come home for the Easter holidays. However, when her little friend presently appeared he was carrying Jacko upon his shoulder, which made her shrink back in her chair, and utter an exclamation of protest.
    The awful moment of disclosure had come, and, thanks (Lady Ombersley bitterly reflected) to Miss Adderbury’s lamentable lack of control over her young charges, at quite the wrong moment. Charles, at first inclined to be amused, was speedily brought to his senses by Miss Wraxton’s evident disapproval. He said that however desirable a denizen of a schoolroom a monkey might be, which was a question to be discussed later, it was not fit creature for his mother’s drawing room, and ordered Theodore, in a tone that invited no argument, to remove Jacko at once. A sullen scowl descended onto Theodore’s brow, and for a horrid instant his mother feared that she trembled on the brink of an ugly scene. But Sophy stepped quickly into the breach, saying, “Yes, take him upstairs, Theodore! I should have warned you that of all things he most dislikes being brought into company! And pray make haste, for I am going to show you a famous game of cards which I learned in Vienna!”
    She thrust him out of the room as she spoke, and shut the door on him. Turning, she found Charles eyeing her frostily, and said, “Am I in disgrace with you for having brought the children a pet you don’t approve of? I assure you, he is perfectly gentle; you need not be afraid of him!”
    “I am not in the least afraid of him!” snapped Charles. “Extremely obliging of you to have bestowed him upon the children!”
    “Charles! Charles!” said Amabel, tugging at his sleeve. “She has brought us a parrot too, and it talks capitally! Only Addy would put her shawl over its cage, because she said horrid, rough sailors must have taught it to speak. Do tell her not to!”
    “Oh, good God, I am quite undone!” Sophy exclaimed, in comical dismay. “And the man promised the wretched bird would say nothing to put anyone to the blush! Now, what is to be done?”
    But Charles was laughing. He said, “You must say your Collect to it every day, Amabel, to put it in a better frame of mind. Cousin, my uncle Horace informed us that you were a good little thing, who would give us no trouble. You have been with us for rather less than half a day. I shudder to think what