Free Cressida by Clare Darcy

explanation was also looming large in Lady Constance’s mind was made evident to Cressida as soon as they were all seated in Lord Langmere’s carriage on their way back to Mount Street at the end of the ball. She was full of Kitty’s success that evening—“If you will believe it, my dear, outside of the waltzes, which of course I would not permit her to stand up for, she was obliged to sit out only two dances!”—and in particular of Rossiter, who, from being a monster intent upon ruining Kitty’s reputation, had become “a most delightful man, such odd, abrupt manners but truly a most interesting conversationalist! And so taken with Kitty! Indeed, he complimented me on her being such an agreeable girl, not at all coming , like so many modern young ladies— not that I could take credit for that, and so I told him, though of course it was I who had instructed her as to how she was to conduct herself at a London ball. ”
    Lord Langmere, living up to his reputation as a good-humoured man, said that he was sure Miss Chenevix had quite deserved her success, and that he himself had very much enjoyed his own dance with her. Kitty smiled at him—was it, Cressida wondered suddenly, that little smile, so modest and self-deprecating, that had taken Rossiter in that roomful of chattering, flaunting females?—but said nothing. The girl had been gazing out the window of the carriage at the London streets, which looked very dark and full of inky shadows in spite of the flaring light cast by the new gas lamps, and Cressida, watching her, imagined there was a thoughtful expression upon her fragile, fair face.
    The conversation continued on Rossiter, but Kitty herself added nothing to it except for an occasional dutiful, “Yes, indeed, ma’am,” in reply to one of Lady Constance’s questions; and only as the carriage halted in Mount Street and the footman sprang down from his perch behind to let down the steps for them to descend did an unsolicited remark fall from her lips.
    “He is very rich—-isn’t he?” she asked in a quiet, abstracted voice, addressing Lady Constance.
    “Oh, my dear, yes—rich enough to buy an Abbey, if one can credit all one hears!” Lady Constance said promptly; and then, in a confusion of trailing gowns, evening mantles, and reticules, the three ladies, assisted by Lord Langmere, descended from the carriage and went inside.

CHAPTER 6
    “I expect,” said Lady Constance to Cressida with some satisfaction over the breakfast-table the next morning, “that we shall have Rossiter calling here today. He asked me last evening if he might, and, as taken as he appeared to be with Kitty, I daresay he will not let the grass grow under his feet. She is altering that blue jaconet muslin carriage-dress you gave her at this very moment, in the event he should ask her to go for a drive with him. I told her Moodle might very well do it for her, but you know how she dislikes making additional work for the servants. Really, it is scarcely to be wondered at that Rossiter finds her so very attractive! Her manners so captivating— simple and composed, with not the least hint of missishness, which you know always puts gentlemen off. And she attends with such interest to what one is saying—” “What did Rossiter find to say to her?” Cressida broke in to ask, for in truth this matter had given her mind a considerable amount of occupation during the unaccountably wakeful hours she had spent before she had at last fallen asleep the night before. “I should think they must have nothing in common.”
    “Not a bit of it,” said Lady Constance superbly. “Kitty has an excellent understanding, and is quite capable of taking an interest in any topic a gentleman may choose to discuss with her. And I must say that it is not at all difficult to do so when Captain Rossiter is on the subject of the new steam railways, which he says will quite replace horses in the