Elizabeth Mansfield by Matched Pairs Page B

course I did. The cards all said it would be informal. ‘An informal dinner and musicale’ are the very words I used.”
    “Then why are there five glasses at each place, for heaven’s sake?”
    Lady Phyllis raised her eyebrows. “Of course there are five glasses. Good heavens, Tris, it is a dinner party, after all. You don’t expect the table to be set as for a picnic, do you?”
    Tris groaned. “So anything less than five goblets makes a picnic setting, does it? And I suppose everyone will appear in all their formal finery too. Satins and jewels and such?”
    “They will be dressed for a dinner party, which is exactly as they should. And if you don’t stop berating me and take yourself off, I shall not be ready to greet the first guests.”
    Tris shook his head helplessly. “This is not the sort of evening I wished for. I thought it would be like an ordinary family dinner. That was how I described it to our guest of honor—a small, intimate affair, I said. What if he makes his appearance in his riding coat? How will you feel then?”
    “He will do no such thing. He is a gentleman, is he not? He knows enough, I’m sure, to dress for dinner.” She turned back to her dressing table, picked up a little bell and rang for her abigail to return. “Now, stop all this nonsense and go along and dress yourself.”
    Despite his mother’s serene dismissal of his concerns, Tris remained worried all the while he dressed. He’d given Julie complete instructions on how to behave toward Canfield this evening (“Let yourself be saucy instead of shy,” he’d advised her, “and laugh at anything he says that smacks even remotely of wit.”), but he’d been counting on a small group. Now that the group had become a crowd, there would probably be little chance for the guest of honor to converse with Julie with any degree of intimacy. And if Canfield should clothe himself in too informal a manner, the fellow would be embarrassed into awkward silence and would probably cut out as soon as politely possible. All Tris’s efforts to set up this affair would have been for naught. The evening was bound to be a complete failure.
    But Tris soon learned that he needn’t have worried. Just as his mother had predicted, Canfield did indeed know enough to dress for dinner. In fact, when Tris went down to welcome him at the door, he found him quite resplendent in a superbly cut dinner coat and elegantly tied neckerchief. “Peter, you coxcomb,” Tris greeted him as he led him up to the already crowded drawing room, “how did you know to wear such finery when I said we’d be informal?”
    “I did tell you, didn’t I, that I intended to wash before I came?” his lordship laughed. “Did you think I’d show up in shirtsleeves and breeches?”
    “Well, I didn’t think you’d come looking fit to meet Prinny. Though everyone else has dressed to the nines to meet you.”
    “I thought they might, but not because of me. It’s because of the cards your mother sent.”
    “The cards?”
    “I’m not such a greenhead that I don’t know what a hostess means when she cordially invites one to an ‘informal dinner party and musicale. ’That word musicale is a clear signal that one had better wear the proper evening clothes.”
    “Ah, so that’s it!” Tris exclaimed, chuckling at his own ignorance. “I see I have much to learn of social conventions, even in my own circle.”
    Tris led his honored guest into the drawing room and introduced him to all the assembled crowd. His lordship seemed not at all discomfited by their large number and put everyone at ease by exchanging pleasantries with admirable unaffectedness. Meanwhile, Tris’s eyes roamed the room, searching for Julie.
    He discovered that she was seated, as was her wont, unobtrusively in a far corner. I should have warned her against that, he thought in annoyance. The girl was never able to think for herself about how to put herself forward. However, all was not lost, for Sir