Babe by Joan Smith Page B

been welcome at Almack’s for several Seasons, milady. If you wish to continue visiting any respectable establishments, you had better change your tune.”
    “I could go to Almack’s if I wanted to. I still pay my ten guineas a year. I stay away through choice, as it is so monstrously dull.” Her name was still on the lists of the prestigious and highly respectable club, but she had been treated with such frosty civility at her last visit that she knew she was not far from being asked to resign. What was it had happened? Ah—she had sneaked a couple of fellows in the back door after eleven o’clock. That was her great crime. The doors closed at eleven, and King George himself might knock in vain after that hour.
    “They are kind enough to take your money, in other words, as long as they don’t have to take you along with it. If you are seen again in public with the likes of Gentz and that pair of libertines he had along tonight, you may expect to receive a cancellation of your membership in the mail.”
    “I didn’t know who he would invite.”
    “A petty clerk who owes every tradesman in the city, and a lightskirt more often seen on the stage than in the audience. Who did you expect he would ask? Princess Esterhazy?”
    “Oh no, hardly one of the patronesses of Almack’s. Though, as one of his countrywomen, she was kind enough to stand up with him at an embassy party not too long ago.”
    “You may be damned sure she wouldn’t do it at a more public reception.”
    “ Very sure, Clivedon. No vulgarity, if you please. Lady Angela would despise it. And lay it at my door too. I am already in such disgrace with her that I shan’t sleep a wink for worrying about it.”
    “I wonder you can sleep. If you had any conscience, you couldn’t. You may imagine what Lady Graham has suffered this night because of you. You have caused my sister and myself great embarrassment, and tomorrow the streets will be buzzing with news of your engagement to a gazetted fortune-hunter. You are not his first choice either. He’s already left one victim high and dry in Austria. I wonder if that is why he doesn’t return. He seems mighty shy of a duel. But then, being pointed out as a jilt will hardly be a new experience for you. Pleasant dreams, Lady Barbara,” he said, and arose to stride from the room.
    She sat looking at the empty doorway, then arose and went out after him. A servant showed her to her room, where Lady Withers had laid out one of her own nightdresses for her. She had kept up a brave front, but was assailed with doubts as she got into bed. She had never been made to feel so guilty before, at any of her scrapes. Fannie would have laughed at tonight as well, but she saw that amidst people of Clivedon’s sort, it was taken more seriously.
    She knew Fannie’s circle was not the highest circle. Some of her friends were hardly accepted at all in real Society. It had been otherwise before her connection with Bagstorff, but lately they had both been omitted from parties they had expected to be asked to. The new set, while amusing, were not the set she would hope to make a permanent alliance with. When she married, as she hoped soon to do, it would be one from the better society she sought. The fact was, when she received any offers, they did not come from the higher society. They came from the likes of Gentz. She had about run out of respectable friends, and made some resolution to improve. It would not be easy when she already knew Lady Withers didn’t want her, accepted her under duress from Clivedon very likely, but she would try.
    The morrow loomed unpleasantly. She would have to go and apologize to Lady Graham, and have a bell peeled over her for half an hour. What on earth could she say to excuse herself? Clivedon had spoken earlier of taking her to the park, but of course that outing would be canceled. She was angry that her carriage and team were still denied her, that her gowns had been taken away, and that she