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4a4c182
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If you mention Bella's name to me again, Gil, I am likely to do you a mischief!' Sherry warned him. 'I never cared the snap of my fingers for that wretched girl, and if you are not assured of that, ask her! Why, God save the mark, she may be a beauty, but give me my Kitten! Bella, with her airs and her graces, and her miffs, and her curst sharp tongue! No, I thank you! What's more, no man who had lived with Kitten would look twice at the Beauty!
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true-love
hero-and-anthony
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Georgette Heyer |
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8e71dce
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Damme, I've been waiting for you to come home these three hours, with nothing to do but read some dashed book or other!' Hero found the thought of his spending an evening at home with a book so droll that she broke into a peal of laughter, which was so infectious that his lordship was obliged to join in. They went upstairs together in excellent accord, and when they parted outside Hero's door, Sherry did her the honor of informing her that she was a good little puss, and that he had always had a fondness for her.
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hero-and-anthony
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Georgette Heyer |
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5d49345
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Sherry was so much relieved to find that Hero had no wish to keep her unfortunate protege permanently in the spare bedroom that he agreed to this plan, even go so far as to hand over, upon demand, a bill to defray the cost of suitable baby clothes for the destitute infant. Hero thanked him warmly and went away to set Ruth's mind at rest, leaving Sherry to congratulate himself on having brushed through the business better than had at one time seemed possible, Mr Ringwood to wrap himself in apparently profound thought, and Ferdy to devise an artistic death for the hypothetical husband.
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hero-and-anthony
thoughtfulness
planning
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Georgette Heyer |
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af33fd9
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Get up, brat, and for the lord's sake, smooth your hair! You look the most complete romp!' Miss Wantage did her best to comply with this direction, but without any marked degree of success. Fortunately, the exigencies of the particular mode of hairdressing affected by his lordship obliged him to carry a comb upon his person. He produced this, dragged it through the soft, tangled curls, tied the hood-strings under Hero's chin, and, after a critical survey, said that it would answer well enough. Miss Wantage smiled trustfully up at him, and the Viscount made a discovery. 'You look just like a kitten!' She laughed. 'No, do I, Sherry?' 'Yes, you do. I think it's your silly little nose,' said the Viscount, flicking it with a careless forefinger. 'That, or the trick you have of staring at a fellow with your eyes wide open. I think I shall call you Kitten. It suits you better than Hero, which I always thought a nonsensical name for a girl.' 'Oh, it is the greatest affliction to me!' she exclaimed. 'You can have no notion, Sherry! I would much rather you should call me Kitten.
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hero-and-anthony
hero-wantage
nickname
kitten
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Georgette Heyer |
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db7f4b1
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Later, when she appeared before him in the sea-green gauze, he stared at her in great surprise, and said: By Jove, he had never thought she could look so well! Encouraged by this tribute, Hero showed him a cloak of green sarsnet trimmed with swansdown, which she had purchased that morning, and upon his expressing his unqualified approval of this garment, confided, a little nervously, that she feared he might, when he came to see the bill, think it a trifle dear.
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hero-and-anthony
hero-wantage
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Georgette Heyer |
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bcc1b33
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When Hero learned that she was now the owner of no fewer than three carriages and eight horses, she turned quite pink, and after struggling for a few moments to express herself suitably, stammered out: 'Oh, Sherry, it is just like K-King Cophetua and the beggar-maid!' 'Who the devil was he?' demanded Sherry. 'Well, I don't precisely remember, but he married a beggar-maid, and gave her everything she wanted.' 'Sounds to me like a hum,' said her skeptical husband. 'Besides, what's the fellow got to do with us?' 'Only that you made me think of him,' said Hero, smiling mistily up at him.
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hero-and-anthony
hero-wantage
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Georgette Heyer |
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6b7201f
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The dinner, which consisted of a broiled fowl with mushrooms, preceded by a dressed lobster and a delicacy of cockscombs served in wine-sauce, and followed by a pupton of pears, in the old style, and a trifle, was excellently cooked, and earned the Viscount's praise.
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hero-and-anthony
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Georgette Heyer |
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06ea843
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Within a month of their taking up their residence in Half Moon Street, it had been borne in upon his lordship that his wife was no more fit to carve her way through life than the kitten he called her. His lordship, who had never known responsibility, or shown the least ability to regulate his own career on respectable lines, found himself sole lord and master of a confiding little creature who placed implicit faith in his judgement, and relied upon him not only to guide her footsteps, but to rescue her from the consequences of her own ignorance. A man with a colder heart than Sherry's would have shrugged and turned a blind eye to his wife's difficulties. But the Viscount's heart was not cold, and just as his protective instinct had one night made him search all night through the woods at Sheringham Place for a favorite dog which had dug deep into a rabbit burrow and had been trapped there, so it compelled him to take such care of his Hero as occurred to him. She had always looked up and adored him, and while he took this for granted he was by no means oblivious to it, and did his best to be kind to her. He was amused, but a little touched, to discover that no deeper felicity was known to her than to go about in his company; she would grow out of that soon enough, he supposed, quite forgetting that when she had shown a willingness to go out with Lord Wrotham the instinct of possessiveness in him had led him to discourage such practices in no uncertain manner.
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devotional
hero-and-anthony
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Georgette Heyer |