"His maiden-aunt in short?"
"The same. Like all small societies, sir, we have our intimate jests which to a stranger must seem excessively threadbare."
"On the contrary," said Vernon, "they possess an engaging spontaneity which flatters me with the suggestion that my own youth has not vanished irreclaimably. And yet," he sighed, "I am a man whom the world insults by claiming as its own."
"You have travelled?" inquired Charles.
"I have made the Grand Tour."
"That is a pleasure which I still owe to myself and to my country."
"You lack energy?"
"Of the kind expressed in gold."
"An hour's good luck at the tables."
"I've enjoyed some dozens," interrupted Lovely. "Almost enough to pay for twice as many less fortunate periods."