Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page A

curtsy, and we parted."
    "Abandoned you most certainly are. Were you driven to St. Neots?"
    "Yes, and it was then that I hit upon the notion of becoming a chambermaid for a space."
    "Let me tell you, Amanda, that a chambermaid's life would not suit you!"
    "I know that, and if you can think of some more agreeable occupation of a gainful nature, sir, I shall be very much obliged to you," she responded, fixing him with a pair of hopeful eyes.
    "I'm afraid I can't. There is only one thing for you to do, and that is to return to your grandpapa."
    "I won't!" said Amanda, not mincing matters.
    "I think you will, when you've considered a little."
    "No, I shan't. I have already considered a great deal, and I now see that it is a very good thing Mrs.—That Female—wouldn't employ me. For if I were a governess in a respectable household Grandpapa would know that I was perfectly safe, and he would very likely try to—to starve me out. But I shouldn't think he would like me to be a chambermaid in an inn, would you?"
    "Emphatically, no!"
    "Well, there you are!" she said triumphantly. "The instant he knows that that is what I am doing, he will capitulate. Now the only puzzle is to discover a suitable inn. I saw a very pretty one in a village, on the way to St. Neots, which is why you find me in this horrid one. Because I went back to it, after the coachman had set me down, only they didn't happen to need a chambermaid there, which was a sad pity, for it had roses growing up the wall, and six of the dearest little kittens! The landlady said that I should go to Huntingdon, because she had heard that they needed a girl to work at the George, and she directed me to the pike-road, and that is why I am here!"
    "Are you telling me," demanded Sir Gareth incredulously, "that you bamboozled the woman into believing that you were a maidservant? She must be out of her senses!"
    "Oh, no!" said Amanda blithely. "I thought of a splendid story, you see."
    "An indigent parent?"
    "No, much better than that one. I said I had been an abigail to a young lady, who most kindly gave me her old dresses to wear, only I had been turned off, without a character, because her papa behaved in a very improper way towards me. He is a widower, you must know, and also there is an aunt—not like Aunt Adelaide, but more like Aunt Maria, who is a very unfeeling person—"
    "Yes, you may spare me the rest of this affecting history!" interrupted Sir Gareth, between amusement and exasperation.
    "Well, you asked me!" she said indignantly. "And you need not be so scornful, because I took the notion from a very improving novel called—"
    "—Pamela. And I am astonished that your grandfather should have permitted you to read it! That is to say, if you have a grandfather, which I begin to doubt!"
    She showed him a shocked face. "Of course I have a grandfather! In fact, I once had two grandfathers, but one of them died when I was a baby."
    "He is to be felicitated. Come, now! Was there one word of truth in the story you told me, or was it another of your splendid stories?"
    She jumped up, very much flushed, and with tears sparkling on the ends of her long eyelashes. "No, it was not! I thought you were kind, and a gentleman, and now I see I was quite mistaken, and I wish very much that I had told you a lie, because you are exactly like an uncle, only worse! And what I told those other people was just—just make-believe, and that is not the same thing as telling lies! And I am excessively sorry now that I drank your lemonade, and ate your tarts, and, if you please, I will pay for them myself. And also," she added as her misty gaze fell on an empty bowl, "for the cherries!"
    He too had risen, and he possessed himself of the agitated little hands that were fumbling with the strings of a reticule, and held them in a comforting clasp. "Gently, my child! There, there, don't cry! Of course I see just how it was! Come! Let us sit on this settee, and decide what is best to be done!"
    Amanda,