Katherine should go with the younger people, and she should have the Duke to herself.
His manner was certainly preoccupied, and he spoke only of ordinary things as they went through the park.
"The party has been the greatest success, Mordryn. Are you pleased? Everyone has enjoyed it."
"Yes, I suppose it has been all right, thanks to your admirable qualities as hostess, dear friend. But how irksome I find all parties! I have been too long away from the world."
"I thought you seemed so cheery, Mordryn, yesterday, but to-day you look as glum as a church. You must shake yourself up, nothing is so foolish as giving way to these acquired habits of solitude and separation from your kind."
"I am growing old, Seraphim."
"Stuff and nonsense!" Her Ladyship cried. "You have never looked more vigorous—or more attractive, and you are not subject to liver attacks or the gout—so you have no excuse in the world for this doleful point of view."
"Perhaps not—It is stupid to want the moon."
"There are no such things as moons for Dukes; they are always lamps which can be secured in the hand."