Free The Foundling by Georgette Heyer Page B

moment, but I shall look to see you at Ampleforth, Duke, next month. Harriet must go to Bath: there is no getting out of that, for old Lady Ampleforth expects her, and we must not cast her into one of her pets, you know."
    The young couple fell apart guiltily; constraint descended upon them again; and by the time her ladyship had discussed various convenient dates for the wedding-ceremony, and estimated the length of time it would take her to procure Harriet's bride-clothes, the Duke was thankful to take his leave.
    When he had been bowed out, Lord Ampleforth, who had been observing his daughter narrowly, said: "My dear Harriet, are you quite happy in this engagement? You must not hesitate to tell me if your mind has any misgiving!"
    "No, Papa, I am quite happy," she said.
    "Good God, Ampleforth, what can you be thinking of?" exclaimed his wife. "Pray, what more could any girl desire I should like to know? To be Duchess of Sale! That is something indeed! Harriet, I wish you will come up to my dressing-room, for there is a great deal I want to say to you!"
    She swept her daughter out of the room, saying as she closed the door: "Your papa has some odd fancies, but I trust I have brought you up to know your duty! It was an awkward business, his calling me out of the room as he did, but I returned to you as soon as I might. Sale looked to be in tolerably good health, I thought."
    "Yes, Mama."
    "He was the sickliest child! I am sure no one thought to see him survive! He is not as well-grown as one could wish, but he is very well made, and has excellent manners. Perhaps he is not precisely good-looking, but there is nothing in his air or countenance to disgust one."
    "I think him very good-looking, Mama," Harriet said, in a subdued voice.
    Lady Ampleforth entered the dressing-room, thrust an empty band-box off a chair, and sat down. "Yes, very likely, my love, and that brings me to what I wish to say to you. Shut the door! Now, sit down, and attend to me a little!" She waited until this command had been obeyed, and then said, twitching her shawl round her shoulders: "I have often observed, Harriet, that you have just a little nonsense in you which will not do. I shall speak frankly to you, and I daresay you may thank me for it one day. I did not quite like to see you hanging so upon Sale, as you were when I came into the book-room just now. You know, my dear child, he will not be looking for you to wear your heart upon your sleeve: in fact, I can think of nothing more likely to disgust him. I must surely have told you a dozen times that a lady of quality must not behave as though she were Miss Smith of Heaven knows where! I shall never forget my own dear mama's telling me how the Duchess of Devonshire—the first wife of the late Duke, I mean!—actually sat down upon his Grace's knee once, when she was but a bride! And her mortification when he repulsed her! It quite makes one blush to think of it. But I believe Lady Spencer—she was one of those blue-stocking women, you know!—brought her daughters up in the oddest fashion! I should not like to think that you , my dear Harriet, would so far forget yourself. Such manners may do very well for parvenues, but whatever your brother Gaywood may have told you, they will not do for you. Sale has not been reared in this modern style, which permits all kinds of license, and, depend upon it, he will expect his wife to conduct herself with fitting decorum. It has been very justly observed, my love—I forget by whom—that if you meet with tenderness in private from your husband, you will have no cause for complaint."
    Harriet clasped her hands tightly together in her lap. "Mama," she said, fixing her eyes on Lady Ampleforth's face, "may not a lady of quality— love? "
    Her ladyship laughed. "As to that, my dear, I daresay she is no harder-hearted than the rest of her sex! But she must always be discreet, and I cannot too strongly impress upon you that nothing of that nature must be