Part 11 (2/2)
”I have never imagined such a thing! I know the Dandies use it for polis.h.i.+ng their hessians, but a whole bath of it a I have never heard of such ridiculous extravagance.”
”People will do anything to look beautiful, but thank goodness, I don't have to trouble about my skin.”
”It has always been quite perfect!” Torilla agreed.
”Like yours,” Beryl replied. ”Oh, I forgot to tell you a ”
She turned from the mirror where she had been looking at her reflection to say impressively, ”Gallen likes you! I never expected he would. As I told you, he never speaks to girls.”
Torilla longed to retort that, whatever the Marquis felt about her, it was of no relevance and she hated him.
Instead she found herself listening attentively, as if fascinated, to what Beryl had to impart.
”I asked him what he thought of my cousin and my greatest friend and do you know what he replied?”
”What a did he say?” Torilla asked.
”He said, 'She is a very unusual person and exceptionally lovely'!”
Torilla found herself blus.h.i.+ng.
”Really? I am sure a he was only being a polite,” she said a little incoherently.
”You don't know Gallen if you think he would lie about that sort of thing. He is usually brutally frank about people. He was the person who first said that Lady Jersey 'looked like an inquisitive parakeet!' and that Beau Brummel was a 'clothes horse on legs'.”
Beryl laughed.
”I a.s.sure you, Torilla, he administers more put-downs than he pays compliments. But I want him to like you, because once we are married you can come and stay with us and I will find you a suitable husband.”
Torilla thought privately that it was very unlikely after what she had said to him today that the Marquis would welcome her to any house that he owned, but aloud she replied, ”You are very kind to me, Beryl dearest, and thank you for the gown.”
”I have told my maid to take a whole lot of things to your room already,” Beryl said, ”and they are packing them in readiness for our trip to London tomorrow.”
”Thank you so very much,” Torilla said again.
”There is also a whole heap of clothes in Curzon Street that I shall never wear again,” Beryl added, ”so you need not keep those rubbishy dresses you brought from the North. Tell the maids to put them all on the bonfire.”
”I will take them back with me,” Torilla said firmly.
She knew that once she returned to Barrowfield she would feel overdressed and far too ostentatious in anything Beryl might give her.
When she went downstairs to dinner and entered the salon where already some people had arrived, she could not help looking at the Marquis to see if he noticed her.
It was wrong, she knew, to value in any way his opinion, yet because he had said that she was beautiful when she was wearing the threadbare blue gown that Abby had made her, it was impossible not to wonder what he would think of her now!
She knew the exquisite white gauze gown, which must have cost an astronomical sum made her look sylph-like and showed off her figure to perfection.
Her fair hair had been dressed in a fas.h.i.+onable manner by one of the maids and because she had no jewellery, she had added a tiny spray of spring flowers.
She would not have been honest with herself if she had not realised when she looked in the mirror that she was very different from the dowdy girl who had dined with the Marquis at The George and Dragon.
What she did not realise was that, however fas.h.i.+onable the gown she was wearing, there was in her face and eyes a spirituality which made her appear different and somehow apart from the other people in the room.
Because she was so slim and so graceful, she seemed almost to float rather than walk across the salon. Then as her eyes met the Marquis's Torilla felt her heart behave in a very strange manner.
Quickly she looked away from him.
He did not speak to her or come near her all the evening, but seemed intent on making himself very pleasant to the guests who drank his and Beryl's health.
They all proclaimed in fulsome tones the virtues of the engaged couple over and over again to anyone who would listen.
”It could not be a more suitable marriage,” Lady Clarke said to Torilla.
”Yes a indeed, ma'am,” Torilla agreed.
”And it must be your turn next,” Lady Clarke went on, who had known Torilla's family when they lived in Hertfords.h.i.+re.
She put her hand on Torilla's shoulder as she said, ”I am sure you will find there are plenty of young men anxious to marry you and who will not be put off by the fact that you are from a Vicarage and have no dowry.”
She was an elderly woman and meant to be kind, but she made Torilla feel her own lack of position.
Despite the fact that she had known many of the guests in the past, Torilla was glad when the evening was over.
They had departed, still expressing their delight at the engagement, and promising that all sorts of expensive presents would be delivered to The Hall in the near future.
”They are a lot of old hypocrites!” Beryl said when the last one left. ”If I was not marrying Gallen, I doubt if I should get anything better than a silver toast rack!”
”They are all very fond of you, dearest,” Torilla said.
”Nonsense!” Beryl retorted. ”They have never ceased expressing their disapproval of me ever since I grew up. It is only now that I am on the way to becoming eminently respectable that they have found that they always admired my outrageous behaviour!”
Torilla thought that one of the most endearing things about Beryl was that she could laugh at herself.
”Well, thank goodness that is over!” the Earl said coming into the salon, ”and when you get to London, Beryl, make it clear to your mother that I have no intention of putting up with any more junketing until the actual day of the wedding.”
”I am sure Mama will be very disappointed if you refuse to escort us to the parties that are being given in my honour,” Beryl replied.
”I will turn up in time to shake hands with all the fools who have nothing better to do than stuff themselves into St. George's, Hanover Square to see you married a otherwise I am staying here with my horses and my dogs.”
”I think that makes a lot of sense, Papa,” Beryl said. ”You know how unhappy you are among the Beau Ton.”
She kissed her father and added, ”Tell Gallen when he comes in that I have gone to bed.”
”Where is the Marquis?” Torilla asked curiously.
”I expect he is walking in the garden, feeling romantic all by himself, but I have no intention of joining him a I am far too tired.”
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