The young duke smiled wanly, and submitted so far as to take a piece of dry toast on his plate and crumble it into bits.
Meanwhile, the dowager, having finished her breakfast, took up the Times to look over.
Presently she startled the duke by exclaiming:
"Thank Heaven!"
"What is it?" hastily inquired the duke, setting down his cup and gazing at the silent reader. "Any news of Salome?" he added, and then nearly lost his breath while waiting for the answer.
"Oh, yes, news of Salome! But scarcely authentic news. Listen! Here is a full account of the wedding—with a description of the bride and bridesmaids, and their dresses and attendants, and of the ceremony and the officiating clergy, and the attending crowd, and the wedding-breakfast, speeches, presents, and so on, all tolerably correct for a newspaper report. But now listen to this—"
Her ladyship here read aloud:
"Immediately after the wedding-breakfast, the happy pair left town, by the London and South Coast Railway, en route for Dover, Paris and the Continent."
"There! what do you think of that?" inquired Lady Belgrade, looking up.
"I think it is not the first occasion upon which a paper has anticipated and described an expected event that some unforeseen accident prevented from coming off," answered the duke, with a sigh.