"Do you act at all?"
"No, I prefer to be one of the audience."
"Then you will come in and see these theatricals, won't you?"
"By-the-way, Lucy," interrupted Colonel Palgrave, hurrying up to join them, "I forgot to tell you that young Fielder has arrived; I daresay he will be at the polo—I'll bring him up and present him to you."
"Another boy?" she asked, with a smile.
"Well, not exactly, I should say he is six or seven-and-twenty; you know he comes to us from the Guards, with the reputation of a lady-killer."
"The Guards," she repeated. "Really!"
"I fancy he has been going ahead a bit, and his father, Lord Highstreet, has sent him out to India to us."
(Verona lagged behind—surely this intimate sort of conversation was not intended for her ears.)
"I see," assented Mrs. Palgrave, "as a sort of punishment. What a compliment to the regiment!"