It could not be said that the pace of Henrietta’s life became any less hectic over the next week. Lady Elstead engaged a dancing master to ensure that the two young ladies would not disgrace themselves with the waltz, should they be given leave to dance it, and to improve their other dance steps so that they might complete the figures without concentrating upon them. She was only very slightly irritated that Henrietta turned out to be the better of the two. She had to remind herself that Henrietta had little French, by her own admission, and had never essayed the harp at all. There were dress fittings, and for shoes, morning calls which left Henrietta wondering how many new acquaintances she had made, and ‘lessons’ from Lady Elstead, who reminded both girls that they needed to know the relationships between the most important society figures, since it was so easy to praise a lady’s sworn foe in an attempt to be polite, and thereby raise the auditor’s hackles.

‘One has to be not just polite, my dears, but politic, and that is rather different. Avoiding embarrassment is far easier than trying to brazen out a faux pas.’

Henrietta and Caroline nodded obediently. There were, it seemed, pitfalls of which they had been entirely ignorant. Lady Elstead was, of course, planning her campaign with the grim determination of a general in the field, as was every other matchmaking mama. Even friends, if bringing out daughters, might be classed as ‘enemy’ this Season, and, having surveyed quite a few of the ‘opposition’ during the reconnaissance that was the morning call, Lady Elstead had already identified several ‘allies’, ladies with girls who were either patently less attractive and would be honoured to form part of the Elstead circle, or such contrasts that each would show off the other. If a gentleman was only attracted to fair damsels, there was nothing that a brunette might do, and vice versa. Placing one’s pretty brunette next to an equally attractive golden-haired maiden could show off both.