"When will you start?" asked Margaret.
"I meant to go next month. I think I will take the yacht."
"I wonder you do not always do that. It is so much pleasanter, and you feel as if you never had gone out of your own house."
"The fact is," said he, plunging, "I am going to take my sister, and I would like to have a little party. Will you not join us yourself, Countess, and Miss Skeat?"
"Really, Duke, you are very kind. But I was not thinking of going home just yet."
"It is a long time since you have been there. Not since—"
"Yes, I know," said Margaret gravely. "And perhaps that is why I hesitate to go now."
"But would it not be different if we all went together? Do you not think it would be much nicer?"
"Did you say your sister was going?"
"Oh yes, she will certainly go."