Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

‘ T hese will never do for town.' Fanny lifted a simple grey chemise-dress with its lace tucker. ‘ That you can never wear in company—why, you would be stared at as a curiosity!' The unwanted gown was discarded onto the bed next to some undergarments. ‘And those stays you will certainly almost never want. They do not give such a good line beneath silk or muslin, and I do not think that, with your fine figure, you should even need them.'

Margaret restrained a smile. ‘If I was fortunate enough to own a silk gown, I should at once put my stays aside.'

Fanny gave her a sly smile. ‘Now, Miss Margaret, you know very well I intend for you to have three or four silk gowns, at the very least. You shall want them very much in town when we have so many engagements. Besides, nobody in the world wears anything under a gown in the new style; everybody has left off even corsets. Now, your newer morning gowns might be acceptable for day wear if we are receiving at home,' Fanny added complacently, twitching at one dark muslin frock, then the other white one, and eyeing them critically, ‘but these will never do for walking out in St. James Square or Hyde Park! I don't expect your mother to understand fashion. I cannot fathom what she was thinking not sending you with at least two white gowns of a quality better than these. You shall have my seamstress to you as soon as we reach town.'

Margaret flushed deeply. ‘Fanny, you are very good, but you know I hardly care what people think of me.'

‘Apparently your mother thinks so,' replied Fanny dryly. ‘I suppose you have no great need of fashion, at Barton,' she added coolly. ‘ There you are never in company—or only in what passes for company when you are with Lady Middleton, I collect. However, you will be associated with our family, and your brother will hardly allow you to appear absurd and ill-dressed. There is—that is, there might be some gentleman whose addresses will be paid to you,' she added with a mysterious smirk, ‘but you can never expect that kind of attention if you are dressed in country fashions. Gentlemen with money desire a wife of quality. It is true you have beauty—that much I cannot deny. But to secure an offer from a gentleman of consequence, Margaret, you will also have to appear to have at least a modicum of sophistication about you.'

Margaret had taken some pains with her appearance, and had been at her glass anxiously for the last week, in order to give Fanny no reason to send her back to her room to redress her hair, or to change her gown. She had been conscientious enough to wear the despised stays, stockings and boots whenever she was to walk or go into town, although she was yearning to fling them all off and run barefoot through the grass again. But Fanny had twice found fault with her gowns already, and once with her hair, and had from then on sent Maria to her to curl her hair and dress it every morning and evening, although apart from one or two engagements they had attended, it was only themselves at Norland.

‘I am hardly likely to receive an offer, Fanny, so it can be of little consequence what I wear even if I am to be judged solely by the modishness of my gowns!'

‘Nevertheless,' replied Fanny with a hard edge to her voice, ‘you will oblige my husband, out of gratitude for his kindness toward you in inviting you here. Now,' she added, softening her tone, ‘let us not quarrel over such a piece of nothing—your mama, I am sure, would agree with me.'

Margaret, knowing her mama would have wanted her to be dressed as well as she could be, especially in town, and because John wished to show his natural brotherly kindness, felt that she could no longer offer any excuses. ‘Very well, Fanny. Thank you, I am very grateful to John, truly. I would not wish to cause you any uneasiness because of my style of gowns, which for my own uses at home, suit me well enough, but perhaps in town would cause some remark which might reflect badly on John.'

‘There! You quite understand me,' said Fanny in satisfaction.

‘But I only beg that you will not spend too much on me, for I shall not have much of an opportunity to wear pretty gowns in Barton, you know!'

‘There is no need to be coy with me my dear,' Fanny replied with a sly smile. ‘Mr Dashwood is determined to be excessively generous. It is rather a fault with him, I am afraid. I find myself reproving him daily for his excessively generous nature. How lucky I am to have married him, however, for he never lets me want for a thing! But one ought not do too little, when such a thing as a young lady's coming out depends upon it! One can never been seen to dress too well, Margaret. You would do well to recall it in the mornings here, when you are choosing a gown!' The disapproved dark green muslin was removed from the bed with a forefinger and thumb and cast on a growing pile of rejected dresses with an air of distaste.

Margaret, who was still as much bemused at being accused of being coy as she was at being berated for her choice of gown even when it was only themselves at home, found she did not have the power of answering her sister-in-law immediately, and thus was prevented from further discourse on the topic by the introduction of another topic.

‘I did not mention before that Harry will be home tomorrow for two days and go away again Sunday morning,' said Fanny as she handed up the gowns to the maid servant which were to be boxed up as unsuitable for town. ‘Such a dear boy! You will recall he was still in the nursery when you last saw him. He has grown into a fine, handsome fellow, and I think I may own that I am a great deal fonder of him than other mothers might be of their children. I quite doat on him when he is at home. You will be amazed at how tall he has grown!'

‘And how old is he now?' enquired Margaret politely, trying to remember her nephew but failing to recall much of him at all.

‘He is just turned eleven years!' said Fanny. ‘He is away at school for much of the time—he is at Westminster of course—but he will be arriving here at midday tomorrow. You shall judge if he is as handsome a lad as I credit him,' she added with a thin smile, ‘but then, I am his mother, and have not the impartiality of a stranger. But his father thinks him very well looking for his age, so I am sure I am not so far removed from my senses as to judge him ill-looking!'

‘I am sure he is very fine boy, Fanny, although I hardly remember him well enough to judge. And what does Harry do to occupy himself when he is home at Norland?'

‘I will not have him lurk in the house during the day, for he is always bringing in some dead bird or other thing, and wishing me to look over it! I cannot abide the tastes of boys! I quite marvel they can be so horrid! I send him out of doors as much as possible when the weather permits. It is so tiring to have a child about one all day!' Here she sighed the sigh of one bearing a great burden. ‘His father will take him hunting, of course,' she added brightly, ‘and he loves to spar. I cannot but think myself quite unfortunate to see so little of him, for he is always busy when he is with us, but I daresay he will spend most evenings with us all. So quiet he is, I tell him to make more noise for I never know when he is present unless he speaks directly to me! And then when he speaks to me it is always in so loud a tone that I quite startle at it. Such a difficult age!'

‘It is?' asked Margaret in some astonishment to hear so much of seeming contrary opinion from the one mouth, and that his mother. ‘I'm afraid to say I know little of young men; Elinor and Marianne's children are still in the nursery!'

‘Are they? Indeed!' was Fanny's dismissive reply, and Margaret was reminded that her sister-in-law, never having asked after the little ones, was hardly in a position to comment on their ages or activities.

‘As you know, I am giving a small evening party tomorrow night,' added Fanny with a slight frown. ‘The Rushes and the Edwins have been invited,' she added with an air of condescension. ‘I suppose to a young person such as yourself, the company of other young people is a necessity. However, I caution you not to monopolize the company of the Edwins,' she added with an assessing glance at Margaret. ‘To do so would seem both rude and impolitic, since the Rushes have a great deal more consequence than the Edwins, so you must not appear to snub them when to do so would reflect badly upon your brother. As for the Captain, you will remember yourself and refrain from addressing him particularly. You must take care not to appear indecorous and thus bring reproach upon your brother by your conduct.'

‘My conduct?' Fanny's tone being tone sharper than usual, Margaret wondered for a moment if Fanny had a particular reason for admonishing her thus, but concluding that Fanny could not know of the pleasant hour spent on the river bank the day before, she did not pay mind to her sister-in-law but said meekly, ‘Certainly, Fanny, although I hope that I have done nothing to give you just cause for such a direction. I like Miss Edwin very much, so it is difficult not to engage her in conversation, but if you so object to my speaking to her father, I shall, of course, direct my conversation to the party in general. I should not like to appear particular, and offend you or John!'

‘Then you are perfectly sensible of your brother's feelings and nothing more need be said.'

Margaret, somewhat mystified, and thoroughly offended, thought a change of topic was the most politic way to proceed, and asked with only a hint of coolness, ‘On which day, Fanny do you propose to leave for town?'

‘We shall go to town after dear Harry is gone away to school again. It is no good setting out on a Saturday, for we should arrive Sunday morning, and then it is impossible to make calls on a Sunday afternoon. And there is nothing I detest more than arriving in town and having no engagements in view whatsoever! It tries me excessively! We shall leave on Sunday morning after Harry has gone off, and overnight in Croyden. There is a very good inn there. God and the coachman willing, we should arrive on Monday noon, in plenty of time to go calling, and then to take the air in Hyde Park. That is where many of our acquaintance spend their afternoons. By Monday evening we shall have enough cards and invitations, I think, to occupy us for the week.' She sighed in satisfaction.

‘And what time does Harry arrive tomorrow? I suppose you are in a great anticipation to see him?'

‘Oh, we will not be home when Harry arrives, for while I am wild to see the dear boy, I am obliged to return Mrs Rush's visit from two days ago, and I require you to accompany me. I believe she has some visitors to whom she has promised me an introduction. I never like to leave these things longer than three days.'

‘You do not think you ought to be here when Harry arrives?' asked Margaret in some surprise.

‘Dear Harry never likes a fuss, and besides that, he was just here a few weeks ago and so it is not so very great an occasion. He has been home to us above three times this year already! No, I am sure we had better let him alone to settle in than to bother the poor boy with making him attend me in the drawing room.'

That her sister-in-law took greater pleasure in a large society of strangers than in her own child was apparent to Margaret, but she wondered at it only a little, for she had always known Fanny's character to be one which was always saying something and doing another.

As for their impending departure for town, Margaret looked forward to it with mixed emotions. It would be an adventure indeed, and she longed for new faces and new society, but if Fanny was a representative of the ilk she would be rubbing shoulders with, she doubted she would fit in any better than she fit in at Norland—she would be, she surmised with amusement, seen as an oddity who did not care for anything she was supposed to care for!

Now that she had seen Fanny enter into the bustle of preparation for their departure, she reckoned that her own portion of happiness in the prospect of so much new diversion and amusement was nothing in comparison to Fanny's, who rushed about the house these last few days in a happy agitation, giving endless orders to her servants and pouring over the papers daily to see who had arrived in town and to whom they would be sending out their own evening invitations.

She allowed herself to be amused by it all, however. Margaret was come to Norland to be happy, and would suffer all her sister-in-law's foibles for the pleasure of some new society and a little adventure!