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has he to do with anything? No one has ever heard of Sir Jasper Chase.”
    “I have. He is one of the most well-regarded men in the City, not to mention a devoted patron of the arts. Believe me, his interest in Lady Cecilia’s career will do more to advance it than all the others put together.”
    “And what woman in her right mind would want a career when she appears to be on the best of terms with people like Princess Esterhazy and Countess Lieven who can really do something to help her?” Barbara shook her head wonderingly at the sheer naiveté of her fiancé. For a reputedly clever man, he could be remarkably stupid and not at all wise in the ways of the world. Her father could say all he wanted about the power exerted by the wealthy men of the City, but she knew very well that true power resided in the drawing rooms of the ton— drawing rooms from which she previously had been excluded, but in which she intended to play a crucial role, now that she had secured herself a place on the first rung of a ladder that was bound to lead her to more dizzying heights than her father could even imagine. And, as the Countess of Charrington, she was going to have a good deal more fun rising to the top of her world than either her father or her husband had had rising to the top of theirs.
    But the first thing Barbara needed to accomplish her goal was visibility, and she was not going to get that if Sebastian continued to bury himself in his work. She simply could not allow him to continue to excuse himself from the balls and routs so necessary to her success, on the pretext that they were nothing but overheated crushes with dull conversations and tepid champagne.
    No, Barbara was going to see to it that Sebastian escorted her to every affair hosted by every member of the Upper Ten Thousand, and if he would not, then she would just have to find someone else who would. Someone like the Marquess of Shelburne, for instance, someone who knew just how to cut a dash at such things, someone who knew that a person’s reputation could be made or unmade by appearing at just the right place at just the right time in highest kick of fashion.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Sebastian was entirely correct in thinking that Lady Cecilia Manners was doing quite well in looking after herself and her brother. However, he was not correct in thinking that she was satisfied with the state of affairs.
    “Really, Neville, is it absolutely necessary for you to have another snuffbox from Rundell and Bridge,” she asked the next morning as she stared aghast at the jeweler’s bill.
    “Surely you would not have me carry a Sevres snuffbox with a striped waistcoat.” Neville shuddered at the very thought of such a thing. “The clash in design would be ... well, it simply would not do.”
    Cecilia bit her lip in frustration as she recorded the figure in her account book and laid the bill in the to be paid pile. It never did the least good to remonstrate with her brother; at best she found herself drawn into absurd discussions of fashion, and at worst she wound up being angry with him for his irresponsibility and self-centeredness, both of which were a waste of her time and energy.
    Neville looked at his sister in horror. “Never tell me you are going to pay for the thing! I have only just purchased it.” Seeing the mulish set of her lips, he sighed with exasperation. “Cecilia, if you are going to insist on paying tradesmen’s bills, the least you can do is wait six months or more until they have sent you several dunning letters. If you do not, they will have no more respect for you than they would for some shopkeeper’s daughter. Besides, if you stopped paying tradesmen, we could afford better lodgings. Golden Square may have been a respectable enough address half a century ago, but no one of any consequence lives here any more. There are nothing but foreigners here now.”
    “You may not consider them to be of any consequence, but I do. There are more