"From my knowledge of you," retorted the Duke, "I should imagine that you would take anything that happened to be lying about."
Sir Harry was attended to the door by the sedate servant.
"A nice household!" he said meaningly.
The sedate servant bowed.
VI
"How to describe the meeting between Alicia and the Duke!" the painstaking author would think. Should she rise with heightened colour, her fingers convulsively clutching that portion of the anatomy under which, as it is popularly believed, a fluttering heart thrills at the familiar footstep? Should she run to him hysterically, falling upon his neck and sobbing for very joy? It is a style which has exponents amongst the very best authors.
Happy am I, that I am not called upon to invent so difficult a scene. It is the glorious privilege of the reporter that he need not invent. Unless he draws a very high salary indeed, to record events, not as they happened, but as they ought to have happened.
In truth she rose with a heightened colour when the Duke was announced, but she offered him her hand conventionally, and—when the door had closed behind the reluctant servant—he took her in his arms and kissed her again and again.
I do not know how many times because I was not present, but I should say quite six times.
(Six of course is merely an estimate covering their first greeting.)