Cressida by Clare Darcy Read Free Book Online Page B

could a tale unfold, my love, on the subject of Captain Deverell Rossiter, whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood—”
    “Do stop declaiming, Drew!” said Cressida. “Next you will be telling me that you will cause my knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end, like quills upon the fretful porpentine—which is not at all in the mode, you know. And I daresay half the stories that are being told of Captain Rossiter are not true, at any rate. Dolly is quite capable of inventing half a dozen hair’s-breadth escapes and amorous adventures singlehanded, only to make her party more interesting.
    “But I do so agree, my dearest love,” said Addison. “Undoubtedly he will turn out to be an entirely tame lion, and quite dreadfully dull, as most men of action are. By the bye, I daresay he is a gentleman? I have just had the misfortune to be presented to a Captain Harries, who appears to be not only a business associate of his but a close friend as well, and I can assure you that he is not  quite the thing.”
    “Captain Harries? Is he here?” Cressida looked quickly about the room, and had no difficulty in discovering the object of her search at its other end, for as the Captain was head and shoulders taller than most of the other guests, his fair head emerged like the dome of St. Paul’s from the lesser edifices surrounding it. “I must go and speak to him,” she said. “I am quite sure he doesn’t know a soul in this room, and in spite of your slighting remarks, Drew, he is really a very agreeable person.”
    “My dear Cressy, to win such a charitable statement from you, he must be a paragon! But pray don’t go yet. I want you to present me to your young protegee when Langmere has finished his duty-dance with her. A Miss Chenevix, I understand? A relation of Lady Con’s?”
    “Why be interrogative, my dear, when you already know all about it?” asked Cressida, not at all surprised to find Addison wishing to be beforehand of everyone else in the room in discovering all there was to be discovered about Kitty. “But I shall be delighted to present you to her, ” she went on, “if you will promise me to do your possible to bring her into fashion. She is Barry Chenevix’s daughter, you know, and I need not tell you there is no fortune there, so Lady Con will be grateful for help from any quarter in firing her off this Season.”
    “If she has my help, dear Cressy, she will need no other,” said Addison, who had never been known to hide his light under a bushel. He raised his quizzing-glass the better to survey Kitty as she moved with lightness and precision in the dance, the natural delicacy of her slight figure enhanced by the shimmering white spider-gauze gown. “Passable,” he remarked presently, letting the glass fall,“but not likely to cause a stir. You will be fortunate to get her off this Season in spite of that gown, in which I certainly detect Fanchon’s hand—”
    “Luckily, everyone is not so particular as you are,” Cressida said, shrugging slightly. “I fancy she will do well enough: she has the knack of making herself agreeable. Will you be agreeable enough to stand up with her for the next set? You know how her credit will rise if it is seen that you have condescended to ask her to dance. ”
    Addison, whose wits were ordinarily quite as needle-sharp as were hers, received this piece of shameless flattery with entire complacency, and upon the set’s ending and Lord Langmere’s bringing Kitty to Cressida, since Lady Constance had already disappeared into the card-room, he graciously bestowed upon Kitty the desired accolade of soliciting her hand for the country dance that was to follow. As he led her off into the set, Cressida was importuned in turn by Lord Langmere and no fewer than three other gentlemen to allow them to do the same for her, but she denied them all for the