"You are modest," said the duchess; "but I have certainly heard, and on good authority, too, that you are about to be married."
"I can only say I was not in the least aware of it," he rejoined.
The duchess raised her parasol and looked keenly at him.
"Pray pardon me," she continued; "do not think that it is from mere curiosity that I ask the question. Is there really no truth in the report?"
"None whatever," he replied. "I have no more idea of being married than I have of sailing this moment for the Cape."
"It is strange," said the duchess, musingly; "I had the information from such good authority, too."
"There can be no better authority on the subject," said Lord Arleigh, laughingly, "than myself."
"You; I admit that. Well, as the ice is broken, Lord Arleigh, and we are old friends, I may ask, why do you not marry?"
"Simply because of marriage, and of love that ends in marriage, I have not thought," he answered lightly.
"It is time for you to begin," observed the duchess; "my own impression is that a man does no good in the world until he is married." And then she added: "I suppose you have an ideal of womanhood?"