'But,' interrupted the American, 'are we not to hear any one for the defence?'
'No,' said Smyth, who was thoroughly happy as a self-constituted master of ceremonies. 'No one would accept the brief.'
'Then,' said Selwyn, 'I apply for the post of counsel for the defence, for in the limited time I have been in your country I have seen much that appeals to me.'
'Of course, it is a well-known fact,' said Dunckley sententiously, 'that American humour relies on exaggeration.'
'No, no,' said Johnston Smyth, hushing the voices with a pianissimo movement of his hands, 'it is not humour on Mr. Selwyn's part, but gratitude. In return for Christopher Columbus discovering America, this gentleman is going to repay the debt of the New World to the Old by discovering England.'
'SHALL WE HAVE SOME PORT?' said Lady Durwent, opening the sluice-gates of her vocal production.
II.
'Speaking of America,' said Mrs. Le Roy Jennings a few minutes later,
Johnston Smyth having sat down in order to do justice to the wine of
Portugal, 'she is in the very vanguard of progress. Women have
achieved an independence there unknown elsewhere in the world.'
'That is true,' said Lady Durwent, who knew nothing whatever about it.
'You are right,' said Madame Carlotti.