Free Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer Page B

you say that I don't understand. I have seen all too many of such cases as you describe, and have sincerely pitied the victims of this so-called charity, who are expected to give unremitting service to show their gratitude for – ' He broke off, for she had winced, and turned away her face. 'What have I said to upset you?' he asked. 'Believe me, I had no intention of doing so!'
       'Oh, no!' she said, in a stifled voice. 'I beg your pardon! It was stupid of me to care for it, but that word brought it all back to me, like – like a stab! Lucasta said I was well-named, and my aunt s-said: "Very true, my love!" and that in future I should be called Charity, to keep me in mind of the fact that that is what I am – a charity girl!'
       'What a griffin!' he exclaimed disdainfully. 'But she won't call you Charity, you know! Depend upon it, she wouldn't wish people to think her spiteful!'
       'They wouldn't. Because it is my name!' she disclosed tragically. 'I know I told you it was Cherry, but it wasn't a fubbery, sir, to say that, because I have always been called Cherry.'
       'I see. Do you know, I like Charity better than Cherry? I think it is a very pretty name.'
       'You wouldn't think so if it was your name, and true !'
       'I suppose I shouldn't,' he admitted. 'But what did you do to bring down all this ill-will upon your head?'
       'Corinna was on the listen last night, when we talked to gether on the stairs,' she said. 'She is the most odious, humbugging little cat imaginable, and if you think I shouldn't say such a thing of her I am sorry, but it is true! I was used to think her the most amiable of my cousins, and – and my friend! And even though I did know that she was a shocking fibster, and not in the least above carrying tales against Oenone to my aunt, I never dreamed she would do the same by me! Well – well, there was some excuse for her trying for revenge against Oenone, because Oenone is a very disagreeable girl, and for ever picking out grievances, and trying to set my aunt against her sisters. But – ' Her eyes filled with tears, which she made haste to brush away – 'she – she had no cause to do me a mischief ! But – but she twisted everything I said to you, sir, m-making it seem quite different from what I did say! Sh e even said that you wouldn't have come upstairs if I hadn't th-thrown out lures to you! Which I didn't! I didn't !'
       'On the contrary! You begged me not to come upstairs!' he said, smiling.
       'Yes, and so I told them, but neither my aunt nor Lucasta would believe me. They – they accused me of being a – a design ing little squirrel, and my aunt read me a scold about g-girls like me ending up in the Magdalen: and when I asked her what the Magdalen is, she said that if I continued to make sheep's eyes at every man that crossed my path I should very soon discover what it is. But I don't, I don't !' she said vehemently. 'It wasn't my fault that you came up to talk to me last night, and it wasn't my fault that Sir John Thorley took me up in his chaise and so very kindly drove me back to Maplewood, the day he overtook me walking back from the village in the rain; and it wasn't my fault that Mr Rainham came over to talk to me when I brought Dianeme and Tom down to the drawing-room one evening! I did not put myself forward! I sat down, just as my aunt bade me, in a chair against the wall, and made not the least push to keep him beside me! I promis e you I didn't, sir!' Her tears brimmed over, but she brushed them away, and said: 'It was nothing but kindness on their parts, and to say that I lured either of them away from Lucasta is wickedly unjust!'
       Since he had himself succumbed to the unconscious appeal of her big eyes, and had been moved to compassion by her forlorn aspect, he could readily understand the feelings that had prompted two gentlemen, whom he guessed to be admirers of Lucasta, to pay her a little attention. He thought, with a sardonic