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Contents (80)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. A PROPOSAL TO CICELY
  8. THE END
  9. READING “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  10. “THE LITTLE LADY”
  11. INTRODUCTION
  12. THE LITTLE LADY
  13. I.
  14. II.
  15. III.
  16. THE END
  17. READING “THE LITTLE LADY”
  18. “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  19. INTRODUCTION
  20. LINCKES’ GREAT CASE
  21. I.
  22. II.
  23. III.
  24. IV.
  25. V.
  26. VI.
  27. VII.
  28. THE END
  29. READING “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  30. “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  31. INTRODUCTION
  32. THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST
  33. THE END
  34. READING “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  35. “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  36. INTRODUCTION
  37. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  38. I.
  39. II.
  40. III.
  41. IV.
  42. THE END
  43. READING “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  44. “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  45. INTRODUCTION
  46. WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?
  47. THE END
  48. READING “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  49. “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  50. INTRODUCTION
  51. CONT
  52. THE CHINESE SHAWL
  53. I.
  54. II.
  55. III.
  56. IV.
  57. V.
  58. VI.
  59. VII.
  60. VIII.
  61. THE END
  62. READING “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  63. “THE OLD MAID”
  64. INTRODUCTION
  65. THE OLD MAID
  66. THE END
  67. READING “THE OLD MAID”
  68. “LOVE”
  69. INTRODUCTION
  70. LOVE
  71. I.
  72. II.
  73. III.
  74. THE END
  75. READING “LOVE”
  76. THE SEARCH FOR “ON SUCH A NIGHT”
  77. GEORGETTE HEYER’S BIBLIOGRAPHY
  78. FURTHER READING
  79. COMING SOON!
  80. OCTOBER 29, 2019

“Think you can manage him?”

Ursula dimpled.

“Yes, and you too, general.”

“Minx!” But he looked at her with admiration. “Well, you can marry him, but I won’t let you take him away. Understand that!”

Ursula patted his hand.

“I don’t want to take him away. I want to come and take care of you as well. It seems to me that you both want a woman in charge of you. Of all the mad people—well!”

The general chuckled again. Ursula smiled at him.

“May he come in and apologise, general?”

The general shrugged his shoulders.

“If he wants to.”

Ursula went to release her captive. When she got into the kitchen she was seized and hugged.

“You idiot!” she murmured, laughing. “Come along in and apologise.”

The general accepted his son’s apology in haughty silence, but over tea he unbent. But it was not until he finally took his leave that he showed Kenneth that he was forgiven. He kissed Ursula good-bye and turned to look at Kenneth.

“If you hadn’t got your mother’s eyes,” he said, “I’d— Well, you have got ’em. Don’t be late for dinner.”

With that he stumped out, and Kenneth conducted him to the lift. When Kenneth came back, Ursula looked him over from head to foot. He stood meekly before her.

“Well?” said Ursula, with would-be sternness.

“It was just a sudden impulse,” Kenneth excused himself. “And—and it did do the trick, darling, didn’t it?”

“Do you always act on impulse?” inquired Ursula.

“N—yes. Usually.”

“I shall have a busy time,” she said. “Two mad, wild—”

“I say, Ursula, I want to kiss you!” he interrupted, and swept her into his arms.

“Is this a sudden impulse?” asked Ursula from his shoulder.

“No, by Jove!” cried Kenneth. “It’s a never-ending impulse!”

THE END

READING “ACTING ON IMPULSE”

It never ceases to amaze me, the passivity of the Heyerian women in these contemporary tales of hers. Because, sure, our Ursula is presented to us here as an “independent” woman, who makes a living on her own and is accountable to no one, but ask her to marry an acquaintance of hers who will – apparently – take her away from all this artistic toil and make a lady who lunches of her, and she’s apparently ready to agree almost immediately, with no intimation of any particular fondness for the gentleman on her part, before or since the proposal.

To me, that makes sense in the Georgians and the Regencies. But in the 1920s? Really? With all the flappers and the women wearing trousers and the suffragettes?

Really?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love this story. It is funny, it is charming, and both the competent Ursula and her impulsive fiancé, the dashing and charismatic Kenneth (oh, these names!), are likeable and attractive souls for whom shared happiness is all but certain. But for the two of them to go from “pals” to “let’s get married!” in the space of a paragraph, without ever going on so much as a date or discussing things like whether they want kids, or where they’re going to live, or even just making out, is wholly bizarre – even in the 1920s, surely. I mean, I’ve read Elinor Glyn; those people were totally doing it.