"Yes," he replied. "Most ladies admire the name and the bearer of it."
"Is he a great hero?" she asked, her eyes bright with interest and innocence as she raised them to his face. "Is he a great statesman?"
"No," was the reply; "I am sorry to say he is a great flirt."
"A flirt!" she repeated, in a voice full of disappointment. "I thought you meant that he was some one to be admired."
"So he is admired, for his handsome face," replied Lord Charter.
She repeated the name again, as though she were saying it softly to herself.
"Is there a Lady Vivianne?" she asked, after a pause.
"Not yet," was the reply; "but from what I hear there is a prospect of one." Then he laughed a little. "You are a stranger among us, Lady Studleigh; you will hardly understand that, at one time or another, almost every prominent man in London has been jealous of Lord Vivianne."
"Indeed! He must be a paragon, then."
There was something of a sneer in her voice, but he did not perceive it.