Friendship and Folly: The Merriweather Chronicles Book I by Meredith Allady Page B

in which any mention of Sir Warrington brought renewed discomfort, but she steeled herself to listen, and was astonished to hear that as a young child he had been spirited away by gypsies; that their ingenuity had defeated every attempt of his parents to recover the boy; and that it was not until after the death of his father, at the time of the late uprising, that he had reappeared and deposed his younger brother, who had been brought up in expectation of the baronetcy. Ann could not help wondering if Lady Thomasin had proposed this romantic and incredible chronicle in jest, but as that lady gazed back at her with every appearance of having delivered a round unvarnished tale, she was forced to give it credence, if only as a respected rumor. Some response being required, Ann remarked that this was surely a hard circumstance for the younger son, to be so quickly and unexpectedly deprived of his inheritance; to which Lady Thomasin replied,
    “Oh yes, indeed--but at least he does not make a display of his disappointment; he leaves that for his mother to do. It is shocking the way that woman behaves! After all, one is her son, as well as the other! At least--well, I have heard some doubt may exist on that head--but I for one do not believe it--and I should not be at all surprised to find she had put it about herself! Ha! Ha! If there were the slightest possibility of his not being who he claims, you may be sure she would not acknowledge him even as much as she does! As it is, he might be a flea , from the way she looks at him, when she can bring herself to do so at all! She cannot forgive him for being older than her darling, and now that Sir Warrington has come to London in search of a wife she is twice furious. Ha! I suppose she thinks that having had the poor taste not to be dead or lost beyond reclaim, he ought at the very least have the courtesy to go to the grave without further interference with the succession! But Sir Warrington has other ideas, and who can blame him? Ha! Ha! Though why he must come here when there are plenty of pretty girls in Ireland who would be happy to help him spend his rents--! Ah well! Poor boy! One trusts he will not regret it. Ha! They call him Edgeworth’s Essay, I understand. Mrs. Erskine told me that it was Lord Al_____y who began it--saw him coming down St. James one day and exclaimed, ‘Oh no! Here comes Edgeworth’s Essay--Illustrated. Gentlemen, I’m off!’ Of course his companions thought he had uttered something terribly clever and rushed about repeating it.” Glancing over, she evidently mistook Ann’s expression of discomfort for one of perplexity, and added, “From the book, you know.”
    Ann said that she did; and seeing her chance, told of her conversation with Miss Spenhope. “I fear I should not have said that about Sir Warrington. I did not then know his history, but I should not have said it in any case.”
    “Well, you certainly should not have said it to one of the Spenhopes! Have you not heard about poor what’s-his-name? The eldest boy--he stays at Bell Hall with his attendants. Something happened to him when he was born; I do not know what, but he is quite childish, I understand, and subject to violent fits, and has never said a word in his life.”
    Lady Thomasin was not burdened with a great deal of sensibility, but Ann’s distress at this disclosure was such, that even she could not mistake it. She gave Ann a look of commiseration, and then searched the room for a likely distraction, which she soon found. “Here comes little Jenny Carruthers! Ha! Her mother married one of the Risleys, and his family never saw him again--which I always thought rather excessive, as she was a perfectly legitimate widow. And Meg Carruthers may have been a silly piece, but she was not half the chatter-basket her daughter is! You have never seen such a girl! She can carry on a conversation all by herself , without a word from anyone else ever being needed! Ha! Ha! I pity that