Elizabeth Mansfield Read Free Page A

there is not."
    "Then why not me? Am I so very dreadful in appearance?"
    "Don't be a coxcomb. You know perfectly well you're top-of-the-trees."
    That made him preen a bit. "Well, yes, I have been told I'm a right cool fish."
    "No doubt by someone who admires gaudy waistcoats and shirtpoints up to the cheeks," Kate taunted, unable to help herself.
    He stiffened. "You, Kate Rendell, have no appreciation of town fashion."
    "If you're an example of it, no, I haven't," she retorted.
    "I suppose," he muttered, "that you think me a complete fool."
    "No, I don't think that at all. Except in your foolish persistence in offering for me."
    "But I can't help it." He grasped her hands in a tight hold. "I love you to distraction. Have for years. And you're fond of me, I know you are. Damnation, woman, why won't you have me?"
    "You have me at wit's end, Percy." She wrenched her hands free and glared at him. "This obstinate resistance to my refusal is more than my nature can bear. You've been a good companion from childhood, yes, but I've been telling you for years that you can never be more than that to me."
    "How do you know you won't change?" he asked, looking at her pathetically.
    "You must take my word that I know my own mind."
    "I won't take your word. You cannot know the future. You may very well change your mind one of these days. I can coax you into it."
    At that her patience snapped. She jumped to her feet. "Percival Greenway," she said icily, "if you cannot accept the fact that we'll never be lovers, I shall have to tell Havers to bar you from the house! And that's my last word on the subject."
    Percy pulled himself up. "Very well," he pouted, "if that's your last word, it will also be mine. Positively!" With an exaggerated bow, like an actor in a drama, he flounced to the door.
    His melodramatic stride made such a comical contrast to the clownish exaggeration of his costume that Kate felt a spasm of laughter rise in her throat. She tried not to let it escape. "Good day, sir," she said with a tiny gurgle, returning his bow.
    He heard it and stood stock still. "You know, Kate," he said after a pause, his voice suddenly free of affectation, "though you're very easy to love, you're quite impossible to like. Positively!"
    Kate stared after him, her mouth agape. Had he really said what she thought he'd said? She got to her feet and took a step after him. "Percy! What—?"
    But he'd stormed out of the room. The sound of his footsteps was already fading as he clomped down the hall. The sound of his angry voice, however, continued to echo in the air. Impossible to like ... that was what he'd said. Those were his very words. Could they be true? Was she really not likable?
    She sank back down upon the sofa, her eyes fixed on the empty doorway. For the second time that day, she'd been given a cruel set down. And it wasn't even noon!
     
     

 
    THREE
     
     
    Kate stalked into the sitting room where her mother sat close to the fire. "Mama," she said, dropping down on the hearth in front of her, "what's wrong with me?"
    Lady Isabel, who'd been stitching away at her embroidery frame, stayed her hand. "Oh, dear, are you ill, my love?" she asked, her eyes showing more curiosity than alarm. Her ladyship was not one to fly into hysterics without sufficient reason. "Headachy? Feverish?"
    "No, no, nothing like that. I'm quite well. Physically, anyway. What I mean is... is there something wrong with my character?"
    "Your character?" Lady Isabel peered at her daughter in confusion.
    "Yes, Mama, my character. My temperament. My nature."
    "I don't know what you mean, Kate. You are a sensible, moral, entirely admirable woman. There's nothing at all wrong with your character." And with a dismissive wave of her hand, she resumed her sewing.
    Kate studied her mother with some irritation. The woman had not turned fifty, yet she'd become completely absorbed by stitchery, an occupation befitting a much older woman. It was a passion that affected everything