The fact that Reginald knows the truth about what happened at the Manwarings’ and is merely amused by Lady Susan’s actions suggests that, in some way, he’s sympathetic to her—he clearly doesn’t care about the feelings of the women in the Manwaring household. Because he now wants to meet Lady Susan, he might even be impressed by how destructive she is. Reginald doesn’t know the real reason why Lady Susan seduced Sir James—or at least what Lady Susan
claims is the real reason. But his observation that Lady Susan caused chaos, negatively impacting everyone in the Manwaring household, seems to excite him rather than put him off. Lady Susan probably didn’t need to seduce the engaged Sir James to secure a wealthy husband for Frederica, and she definitely didn’t need to do it while staying with the Manwaring family. Her motives, then, are unclear—it’s possible that she did just want to prove that she could disrupt everyone’s lives, and thus that she had power over them. However, while Reginald’s gossip seems to be pretty solid, he may unknowingly be repeating Lady Susan’s lies himself—Lady Susan doesn’t like her daughter and could have told others that she’s boring and prideful. Meanwhile, it’s significant that stories of Lady Susan’s misbehavior are spreading, even though readers know that she cares about her reputation. It’s possible that she believes she can do damage control, even when everyone knows exactly what happened.