"You seem quite at home, Doris," said Mark, enviously.
"I feel so," she replied. "I could live happily enough here; it is so easy to be good when one is rich."
He looked at her in dull wonder, as he generally did when she puzzled him.
"But Doris," he said, "that is just exactly the opposite of what the Bible says. Don't you remember the text about the rich man, the camel, and the needle's eye?"
"I remember it," she replied. "Those who have no money long for it, and some desire it so ardently they will do anything to win it; the rich have no need to be envious or jealous."
He was not clever enough to argue with her; the only thing he could do was to tell her she was wrong, and that she should not talk that way.
Before there was time to reply, the door opened, and the duke came in.
He spoke kindly, saying that the duchess was engaged with some visitors, but that Lady Estelle Hereford would see Miss Brace, and would be pleased to show her the pictures and the flowers.
Mark looked astounded at the condescension; even the duke himself felt some little surprise when she had made the offer.
"You had better let the housekeeper take her, my dear," he had said.