Again Jimmy smiled. The wedding was near now, and the next day he was going to Ashwood to meet Fanny Gaston.
"You're going to Dick's on Friday, aren't you?" he said to Marchmont.
"I believe I am."
"Ah, then you shall hear about our show from Quisanté himself."
"What?" Weston Marchmont's tone expressed surprise rather than pleasure.
"May's going to be there, and he's coming for the Sunday. Amy fought hard, but Dick said he must come, because he was going to be a connection." Jimmy's slow smile endured all through this speech; he had a sense of humour which he treated gravely.
"I didn't know he was coming," said Marchmont. Sir Winterton broke into a hearty laugh.
"You're the most prejudiced fellow in the world, Marchmont," he said. "I tell you what, though," he went on. "Do persuade Lady May to take care of her husband, or get him to take care of himself. My wife's been at her again and again, but nothing's done. The man's not well, he'll break up if they aren't careful." He paused, and a puzzled look came over his handsome candid face. "If I was half as bad as he is, my wife'd have me in bed or off to the seaside in a jiffy," he ended.
The silence that followed struck him much as May's and Aunt Maria's had struck his wife. Neither he nor his wife were accustomed to the way in which people who knew Quisanté close at hand came to stand towards him.
"I suppose Lady May's not what you'd call a very domestic woman?" he hazarded. "Charming, most charming, but full of politics and that sort of thing, eh?"