"There goes the duchess," said Captain Floyd, raising his hat, as a stout lady, in a handsome equipage, inclined her head toward them. "Looks very jolly, considering that she has lost so much money, and that the duke is supposed to have left her."
"She puts her gain against her loss, don't you see," said Violet Graham quickly.
There was an applausive laugh, of course.
"And here comes the new bishop. Why do bishops always have such awfully plain wives, Miss Graham?" murmured Lord Chichester.
"That they may not be too proud, like some of us," she said, promptly.
Charlie Chichester's wife was good looking. He blushed.
"You are harder than ever, this afternoon, Miss Graham," he said.
"Or is it that you are softer?" she retorted.
The ready laugh rang out.
"Tremendous lot of people," said the dragoon, languidly; "it makes one long for a desert island all to one's self."