She treated Deirdre to a long and severe lecture on the selfishness of allowing the wedding arrangements to proceed as far as they had. Deirdre had deliberately, said Minerva, turned poor Papa into some sort of ogre as an excuse for plunging deeper into the whole mess. Feebly did Deirdre complain that Papa was not entirely blameless, and that a man who chased his daughter across the countryside with a whip could hardly be described as a loving and sensitive parent, but Minerva would not listen. Lord Sylvester had had a most wretched time of it, talking to Lord Harry. Lord Harry was a perfect gentleman, and, in truth, probably too mature and polished for such a heartless hoyden as Deirdre. The lecture would have gone on for much longer if Lord Sylvester had not intervened by teasing his wife and saying all her prosing made his head ache. Deirdre’s only ally turned out to be the maid, Betty.
