‘I am.’
‘There would be no difficulty in that quarter. When a Whig becomes Tory, or a Tory Whig, the gentlemen of the party he has deserted never take umbrage in the same way as the vulgar dogs below the gangway; so it is in the world. The people who must meet, must dine together, sit side by side at flower-shows and garden-parties, always manage to do their hatreds decorously, and only pay off their dislikes by instalments. If Lady Maude were to receive my wife at all, it would be with a most winning politeness. All her malevolence would limit itself to making the supposed underbred woman commit a gaucherie, to do or say something that ought not to have been done or said; and, as I know Nina can stand the test, I have no fears for the experiment.’
A knock at the door apprised them that the dinner was waiting, neither having heard the bell which had summoned them a quarter of an hour before. ‘And I wanted to hear all about your progress,’ cried Walpole, as they descended the staircase together.
‘I have none to report,’ was the gruff reply.
‘Why, surely you have not passed the whole day in Kearney’s company without some hint of what you came here for?’
But at the same moment they were in the dining-room.
‘We are a man party to-day, I am sorry to say,’ cried old Kearney, as they entered. ‘My niece and my daughter are keeping Miss O’Shea company upstairs. She is not well enough to come down to dinner, and they have scruples about leaving her in solitude.’
‘At least we’ll have a cigar after dinner,’ was Dick’s ungallant reflection as they moved away.