"I'd no idea you or Bertha Shallum knew Madame Adelschein well enough to take her off with you in that way."
Undine sat absently smoothing the tuft of glossy cock's-feathers in her hat.
"I don't see that you've got to know people particularly well to go for a walk with them. The Baroness is awfully bright too."
She always gave her acquaintances their titles, seeming not, in this respect, to have noticed that a simpler form prevailed.
"I don't dispute the interest of what she says; but I've told you what decent people think of what she does," Ralph retorted, exasperated by what seemed a wilful pretense of ignorance.
She continued to scrutinize him with her clear eyes, in which there was no shadow of offense.
"You mean they don't want to go round with her? You're mistaken: it's not true. She goes round with everybody. She dined last night with the Grand Duchess; Roviano told me so."
This was not calculated to make Ralph take a more tolerant view of the question.
"Does he also tell you what's said of her?"
"What's said of her?" Undine's limpid glance rebuked him. "Do you mean that disgusting scandal you told me about? Do you suppose I'd let him talk to me about such things? I meant you're mistaken about her social position. He says she goes everywhere."