Lady of Quality

Lady of Quality (1972) Georgette Heyer

Annis Wychwood is twenty-nine and an old maid. Her beauty led to previous offers for her hand, but she turned them down, none from a man for whom she was willing to give up her independence.

Of course, she is still young enough she must keep someone with her, to keep her countenance, and unfortunately for Annis, that someone is Miss Farrow.

Miss Farlow realized that dear Annis had the headache, which was the only possible explanation for her want of enthusiasm over her nephew and niece.

Miss Farlow, still convulsively sobbing, had relied that she hoped she knew better than to talk too much to persons in dear Annis’s tender condition. So too did Lady Wychwood, but she doubted it.

Luckily, they come up Lucilla Carleton, who is having problems with her guardians, and so Miss Wychwood allows her to visit for awhile. But a teenager is more than she expected–especially when one of that young lady’s guardian is the rude Oliver Carlton.

‘(D)on’t be so rag mannered!’ she retorted.

‘But I wasn’t!’ he protested. ‘I didn’t see Lucilla is pudding-faced! I said she was, and even complimented her on her improved looks!’

But Lucilla and her friend Ninian Elmore that are a bit more work than she expected.

Lucilla, having maintained what she believed to be a dignified silence, but which bore a strong resemblance to a fit of childish sulks, until she found no one was paying the least attention to her, took herself off to bed before the tea-tray was brought in.

Anyone who knows me will, should recognize why I found the following passage hilarious.

‘And no wonder! Racketting all over at her age!’

‘At my age?’ exclaimed Anis, with a comical look of dismay. ‘Jurby, you wretch, I’m not in my dotage!’

I love the term ‘wretch.’

Another nice escape from modern reality.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca

 
 

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