“‘Oh!’ doesn’t tell me much.”

“Well, you know all about him.”

“He’s a very excellent young man. Not rich.”

“A pauper?”

“No. Enough.”

“All right. If you’re satisfied, I am. But hasn’t he been making a fool of himself about some woman?”

“Really, Robert, how strangely you express yourself! I suppose you mean about Neaera Witt?”

“Yes, that’s it. I heard some rumour.”

“Heard some rumour! Of course you read every word about it, and gossiped over it at the Club and the House. Now, haven’t you?”

“Perhaps I have,” her husband admitted. “I think he’s a young fool.”