The duke flushed.
"Eh? Oh, I see. You think it very base of me to speak ill of him behind his back?"
"That's what I meant," she assented, gravely.
"Oh, but the world wouldn't consider that I had spoken at all ill of him."
"The world!" she said. "How wicked and heartless it must be, this world of yours, Mr. Temple!"
"It is," he said, curtly. "As heartless as a flint."
"Or as the Duke of Rothbury, if he were what you have painted him," she said very softly.
"You don't believe me, then?" he asked, looking up at her from under his thick brows.
She shook her head.
"Not the very least!" she said, actually smiling.