in any way his responsibility. Desford then makes for Bath to see if Cherry's old schoolmistress can find her a situation. Wilfred Steane, Cherry's disreputable father, who had fled London and was presumed dead, reappears after an absence of many years, hoping to blackmail Desford into marrying Cherry on the grounds that he has compromised her reputation. Since Desford is away, he is vigorously defended by his younger brother, Simon, who pretends that Desford is engaged to Hetta. Simon then rushes over to Inglehurst to forewarn them that Steane is on his way, only to find that Cherry seems to have run away yet again. Arriving at Inglehurst only a few minutes after Steane, Desford baffles the wayward father, whose only interest in his daughter is how he can profit by her. Cherry is finally discovered out in the country with a sprained ankle by Nethercott, who carries her home, having proposed marriage to her and been accepted. Desford has meanwhile realised from his jealousy at Nethercott's former interest in Hetta that he really cares for her and declares that he does not mean to break off the engagement that his brother invented for them. Hetta admits that she loves him in return and they receive Lady Silverdale's blessing. Simon, invited to stay to dinner too, excuses himself since he has to make an early start for Brighton the next day. His parting words to his brother are: "But if you should get into any more scrapes, Des, just send me word, and I'll post straight back to rescue you!" Critical reception A Publishers Weekly review of Charity Girl describes it as "full of dashing period slang, and it trifles with the affairs of several maids and men with such style and gentle irony that readers of good 'ton,' as Miss Heyer herself might put it, will find reading it a very 'comfortable cose' indeed." Beyond that, Charity Girl has not received a lot of serious critical attention, but it does continue to garner a steady trickle of readers, especially fans of the regency genre. Charity Girl has seventeen reviews, most of them positive, at Google Books. Good Reads posts forty-eight reviews of Charity Girl with an average 3.39 rating out of five. At Library Thing, the novel has a 3.55 out of four rating. References 1970 British novels Novels by Georgette Heyer Historical novels The Bodley Head books Regency