"And once—once, in India—he fought for my good name," she continued, easily.
"The good name of the family," the cousin corrected—unnecessarily it seemed to Sir Caryll.
"It came to the same thing," she added.
Carleigh wished that the other man would go back to the game and thus end this bewilderingly frank conversation. And the next instant he did, and they two were alone again.
"You have had a hard time," he said, quickly. "I fancy I ought to know all about the story, Mrs. Darling, but I don't. I haven't any connections in the army. We are all diplomatic people. It's very stupid in us, I suppose."
"Not quite that," she returned. "I've sometimes thought that we are stupid to go in for the army so strongly. But it is all an affair of blood and bigness, I imagine."
He laughed. "Blood and bigness," he repeated. "How cleverly you put it! And with us it is—"
"Brains and littleness," she cut in.
Then he laughed again, outright. So outright that those at the tables heard, threw up their heads, listened, and then bowed their heads again, masking significant smiles.
"There is no one like Nina," Lady Bellingdown commented under her breath.