Elizabeth Mansfield by A Very Dutiful Daughter Page A

substitute for inner worth.’”
    “I was wondering when you would come forth with a quotation. That was the one thing this conversation lacked,” Prue said nastily.
    “I’m sorry if my tendency to rely on quotations offends you,” he responded lamely.
    “Your tendency to rely on quotations is the least of it!” Prue burst out. “Your temerity in speaking to me at
all
on this matter offends me! Your calling my behavior unseemly offends me! Your avuncular manner offends me! And even your calling me beautiful offends me!”
    Brandon, unaccustomed to the emotional outbursts of women, was completely taken aback. “I … I’m … sorry,” he stammered, backing away from the angry flash of her eyes. “I m-meant no harm …”
    “Meant no harm? Meant no harm? You call me a vulgar hussy and then say you meant no harm?”
    “V-Vulgar hus—? I never said … ! Miss Glendenning, please believe me! I never meant to imply—”
    “How else am I to interpret what you said?”
    “I merely indicated that your rather noisy frivolity was a bit unseemly, that’s—”
    “Unseemly! That, Mr. Peake, is not much better than
vulgar
!” Prue snapped and turned her back on him.
    Brandon came up behind her and said placatingly, “Please forgive me, Miss Glendenning. I meant it for the best. As Sophocles said in his great
Antigone,
‘None love the messenger who brings bad news.’”
    Prue wheeled around and found herself face-to-face with her accuser. Staring at him stonily, her mind made irrelevant note of the fact that, slight in stature as he was, he stood at least an inch taller than she. Summoning all the control she could muster, she said spitefully, “But you see, Mr. Peake, I don’t consider you to be the messenger. As far as I’m concerned, you are the bad news!”
    Poor Brandon was stunned. “By your leave, Miss Glen—” he began.
    “By
your
leave, Mr. Peake, I don’t wish to hear any more. I intend to return to my friends andcomport myself exactly as I wish. And I’ll thank you to take no further notice of my behavior. In fact, I’d be delighted if you took your by-your-leaves and your classical quotations and never spoke to me again!”
    She turned on her heel and ran quickly back to her friends, leaving Brandon bemused, remorseful, and miserable. To make matters worse, he looked around to find himself the object of several curious stares. There was nothing for him to do but take his leave. Prue, on the other hand, resumed her laughter and flirtations with more energy than before, until she realized that Brandon was no longer in the room. Then some of her spiritedness seemed to desert her, and although she continued to smile indiscriminately on her three swains, she noticed that somewhere at the back of her throat she felt very close to tears.
    ***
    In the meantime, Lord Denham was doing his best to find a way to penetrate his companion’s thick wall of reserve. He had set a course for Limpley Stoke, promising Letty that she would have much picturesque scenery to enjoy, for the road ran along the Avon’s banks for several miles. For the first hour, he engaged in the kind of polite and amiable exchanges that had marked their conversation during his brief “courtship,” but as the distance from Bath increased and the traffic on the road became lighter, he gave the horses their heads and turned his attention to the girl beside him. “It is quite lowering to realize, Miss Glendenning,” he said disarmingly, “that I owe your company today to the coercion of your aunt.”
    Her eyes flew to his face, and finding him smiling down at her kindly, she colored slightly. “I … I … would not call it coercion, exactly. My aunt, despite a rather forbidding exterior, is really very kind.”
    “I didn’t mean to imply that she would
beat
you, my dear,” Lord Denham said drily. “I only meant that, without her urging, you would not have come.”
    “You are embarrassingly direct, my lord.”
    “I’m sorry if