"You mean Mr. Levin; the royal secretary; he's my husband's most intimate friend."
"Is he really? Hm! How strange! My husband's a controller in the same office where he's a secretary; I don't want to vex you, or say anything unpleasant; I never do; but my husband says that Levin's in such bad circumstances that it's not wise for your husband to associate with him."
"Does he? That's a matter of which I know nothing, and in which I don't interfere, and let me tell you, my dear Evelyn, I never interfere in my husband's affairs, though I've heard of people who do."
"I beg your pardon, dear, I thought I was doing you a service by telling you."
That's for the chandelier and the dining-table. There only remains the velvet dress.
"Well," the controller's wife took up the thread again, "I hear that your brother-in-law...."
"Spare my feelings and don't talk of the creature!"
"Is he really such a bad lot? I've been told that he associates with the worst characters in town...."
At this juncture Mrs. Falk was reprieved; the footman announced Lady Rehnhjelm.
Oh! How welcome she was! How kind of her it was to come!