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with slightly tipsy debutantes. Sit down and calm yourself. We shall talk together until you feel more the thing.”
    Constance sank down and buried her face in her hands. “I am so ashamed,” she said in a muffled voice. “Aunt told me not to touch wine. ‘At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.’”
    “Just so,” commented his lordship with a blink. He was not used to females quoting the Bible, particularly after they had been held in his arms. “But you will learn how to keep a clear head when you grow more accustomed to it. Now tell me, do you enjoy being a companion? You are well-treated?”
    “Oh, yes,” lied Constance quickly. “My duties are simply to chaperone Lady Amelia.”
    “I am surprised that Amelia Godolphin should tolerate such a pretty companion.”
    “Pretty! Me?” said Constance naively. “Oh,
thank
you.”
    Lord Philip sat down in the chair opposite and looked at her thoughtfully. Certainly the girl was elegantly gowned and coiffured. It appeared there was a softer side to the fair Amelia he had not discovered before.
    “I knew your father well,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I can remember you—just. You were a pretty little thing. Always hiding behind chairs when I and my noisy friends would come to call. Sir Edward was a great huntsman but, I fear, an inveterate gambler. Was your aunt kind to you?” he asked abruptly.
    “In her way,” said Constance slowly. Her head was beginning to clear and it felt strangely natural to be sitting talking to this elegant lord. “She was very strict, and we read nothing but the Bible and Mr. Porteous’s sermons, you know.”
    “Sounds curst dull,” commented Lord Philip. “Well that’s all over now. A girl of your age should be enjoying balls and parties. Have you attended Almack’s?”
    “Oh, no,” said Constance. “I fear Lady Amelia has not been granted vouchers.”
    “That doesn’t surprise me,” he said drily. “Would you care to go?”
    “Of course,” said Constance with a sudden infectuous grin lighting up her face. “Who wouldn’t?”
    “Perhaps I can arrange something,” he said slowly. “I have some influence with the Patronesses.”
    “Lady Amelia would be so delighted!” said Constance, clapping her hands and thinking to herself that a happy Amelia might be a more amiable mistress.
    “Very well,” he said rising to his feet. “I shall try. Now I must join the party or my sister will never forgive me. I shall escort you.”
    “No, oh no! You mustn’t!” cried Constance in alarm. “Lady Eleanor told Lady Amelia I had not been invited and that there was no room available for me and asked—Mr. Evans, is it?—to put me somewhere until the entertainment is over.”
    Lord Philip’s mouth folded in a hard line. “I am sure you are mistaken,” he said grimly. He held out his hand. “Come!”
    But Constance held her ground. It was not the formidable Lady Eleanor who frightened her but Lady Amelia. She guessed shrewdly that Lady Amelia would be incensed to see her companion in the company of the man she hoped to marry.
    “I am still feeling unwell, my lord,” she said firmly. “I would be much happier staying here. Do
please
go.”
    “Very well,” he said, looking at her thoughtfully. Constance stared up into those green eyes and felt a strange fluttering feeling in her stomach and a weakness in her legs but put it down to the effects of the champagne.
    Lord Philip made her a courtly bow and left.
    The
musicale
had finished and the guests had congregated in the supper room. He paused on the threshold. His sister came sailing up to meet him.
    “So you have finally deigned to arrive, dear brother,” she said, kissing the air somewhere in the region of his cheek.
    “I have been here for some time and I have been most charmingly entertained,” said Lord Philip with a mocking smile. “I dropped into the library on my way and who should I meet but little Constance