"You may well be surprised," said his great-aunt, "but such is the case."
"But where has she gone?"
"That I do not know; she left without consulting me, and against my advice and wishes."
"Did she go alone?"
"She went," replied her ladyship, "with one of the most insolent persons it has ever been my misfortune to meet. He is owner of that!" And she pointed to the elephant.
"But who is he?" demanded Scarsdale, not recognising, from her description, his friend the Consul.
"He disgraces," she continued, "a public office given him by a foreign Government."
"You are surely not talking about Allingford!" he exclaimed.
"That, I believe, is his name," replied Lady Melton.
"What, my husband!" cried the Consul's wife, who up to this point had kept silence. "You dare to call my husband a disgrace——!" Here Mrs. Allingford became dumb with indignation.