“Then you shouldn’t have encouraged him. You let him spend a fortune in jewelry for you.”
“That was because I mistook his intentions. I thought he wanted to adopt me.”
The marchioness gasped.
“Don’t talk like that! Then there was the Earl of Mullet. You objected to him because he was a Scotchman.”
“And took snuff. Put down the snuff.”
“He wouldn’t have made you take it. And last year you refused Mr. Jacobson, whose father owns three gold mines. You said he was a Jew.”
“No, excuse me, I merely said his father had been one.”
The marchioness shook herself impatiently.
“The Jews are most respectable,” she proclaimed, “when they are rich enough. They go everywhere.”
“Except to the Holy Land, marchioness.”