Lord Verney attempted another shout in vain.
"So Sir George says," remarked my lady.
"'Tis the very eye of my poor dear Toto," thought Mistress Bellairs.
Lord Verney looked round in despair. Miss Selina thought him monstrous handsome and gallant, and her poor old-maid's heart warmed to the lover in him. She approached Lady Maria and gently lifted her trumpet.
Lady Maria, glad enough of a diversion, applied it to her ear with unwonted affability.
"What is it, my dear? Any sign of the Duchess?"
"Your nephew," said Miss Selina in modest accents, "your nephew, my Lord Verney, wishes to inform you that he is about to contract a matrimonial alliance with the lady he has just introduced to you."
Miss Selina blushed behind the mouthpiece as she made this announcement. Then she cried: "Oh," with an accent of suffering, for Lady Maria had rapped her over the knuckles with the instrument.
"Matrimonial fiddlesticks!" said Lord Verney's aunt. "Selina, you're a perfect fool!—Madam," remarked the wraith of the departed cockatoo, inclining her crest with much dignity towards the blooming Kitty, "I wish you good-morning."