"I have heard something. What have you heard?"
"George Roden is in Italy."
"Unless he has left it. He has been there, no doubt."
"And his mother." Hampstead nodded his head. "I suppose you do know all about it?"
"I want to know what you know. What I have heard has come to me as a secret. Your story can probably be divulged."
"I don't know that. We are apt to be pretty close as to what we hear at the Foreign Office. But this didn't come as specially private. I've had a letter from Muscati, a very good fellow in the Foreign Office there, who had in some way heard your name as connected with Roden."
"That is very likely."
"And your sister's," said Vivian in a whisper.
"That is likely too. Men talk about anything now-a-days."
"Lord Persiflage has heard direct from Italy. He is interested, of course, as being brother-in-law to Lady Kingsbury."