Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer

Charity Girl is one of Heyers last novels, and its a little like the Foundling, in that a lot of the story is about the hero helping a young girl. Ashley, Lord Desford is visiting his father who is ill with gout, and who is annoyed that his eldest son shows no signs of settling down. He has a fortune of his own, inherited from an aunt, so he is independent of his father and spends much of his time pursuing sports. Lord Wroxton reads a tirade over him, complaining that he could have married Hetta Silverdale, who lives nearby, and Ashley responds that he is very fond of Hetta but they are good friends and not likely to fall in love. He pays a visit to her, at her family home, before leaving the area to visit his Aunt, Lady Emborough, and finds Hetta is entertaining a male friend who has recently moved to the area, Mr Nethercott. Ashley thinks that he is a bit dull but talks to him civilly and then goes off on his visit. Lady Emborough has a large family and Ashley enjoys a stay with them. However they are invited to a ball at the nearby estate of Sir Thomas Bugle who has a very lovely daughter, Lucasta. Ashley flirts with her, a little but during the ball, he sees a young girl watching from upstairs. He goes up to speak to her, thinking she is one of the younger children and finds that she's actually 18, but very small. She is Cherry Steane, Lady Bugle's neice, and he discovers that she has been taken in by her aunt because her parents are dead... and she has been treated as a servant almost. He feels very sorry for her but is shocked the following day, to find her trudging along the road, with a suitcase.