Althea by Madeleine E. Robins Page A

neglected points in your education? I thought you danced very nicely.”
    “And so I do now, but a month ago! It is all due to the work
of a Signore Francesco, teacher of the dance. A splendid master whom Maria
pressed upon me with the direst threats. And she instructed me in flirtation,
court manners, the rules of Society — why, almost all the schoolroom nonsense I
ignored when I was in the schoolroom. I cannot wonder that with all the
rules she has to remember she often cannot talk correctly.”
    “But tell me, how does one discourage the attentions of an
overly amorous gentleman? Just in case I ever need to know such a valuable
piece of information.”
    “I could not be so unfair to the rest of my sex as to give
secrets to one of the enemy camp!” This broke through the last vestige of Sir
Tracy’s composure. He abruptly drew the curricle to the side of the road, and
burst into a whoop of laughter, to the distress of his cattle and the interest
of a farmer steering a dog cart in the other direction. When he had somewhat
recovered, he calmed his horses and replaced the beaver hat that had fallen
behind him at the first of his laughter.
    “You are serious in telling me that your sister subjected
you to these ninnyish teachings? Lessons in flirtation? I thought every woman
was born with that lesson engraved upon her heart!”
    “Like literary taste?” Althea suggested.
    “Confess that the whole is some fancy’s flight you have
conceived to amuse me from my sullens.”
    “You admit that you are blue-deviled! I thought so. But I
cannot confess what is not so. Maria was most scrupulous in her teaching, and
although I have ignored most of it, I cannot but be grateful for some of it.
Who knows what impropriety I might have committed had she not explained the
rules of Almack’s to me, for instance. I might have tried to gain admission
after eleven, or, some such equally dire crime.”
    “You might, I collect, have had the temerity to wear
pantaloons —” Tracy began.
    “Instead of knee breeches,” Althea triumphed. “Just what I
told Mary, only she was vastly scandalized, and begged me never to say such a
thing in company. I cannot thank you enough for relieving me of the necessity —
there can, of course, be no objection to your saying such a thing.”
Tracy sternly controlled himself and asked meekly what other gems Althea had
garnered at her sister’s knee.
    “Of the rules of things, not much more than that. She did
give me the credit for being a good student, and able to pick up much from what
I saw others doing. But when Banders — my maid, and my mother’s before me —
when she arrived in town, it nearly began all again. She treats me as the
veriest babe, which I certainly am not at the advanced age of three and twenty.
When I come in from a drive or a ball she is sure to ask if I remembered to
make my curtsy to such a one. Oh, please do tell me if I ever should forget to
make my curtsy to you, for I should hate to be backward in civility.”
    “Well, ma’am,” Calendar said at length, “I know now that you
dislike Cowper and Pope, read novels, and are undergoing, I make no doubt for
the second time, the exigencies of the schoolroom.”
    “Oh, as soon as I made my first appearance before the ton Maria stopped tutoring me. I am now to rise or fall on my own. Although I
regret to say that I misdoubt Banders will ever treat me as an adult. I must
not mind that.”
    “Your generosity knows no bounds, ma’am. I honor you. You
enjoy Fielding? Who else do you favor with your patronage? If you really are a
bluestocking, as you claim, you most recommend me some reading.”
    The remainder of the trip was spent in a lively discussion
of literature. Althea was pleased — although not very surprised — to find that
Sir Tracy’s cynical nature did not preclude a broad interest in literature, and
a well-informed mind. He had read classics at University, “a fact I try hard
enough to hide, since erudition