"'What damned nonsense it is, Catherine, to invite people who bore you to death with questions you can't answer! Who the devil is Eliza, and what's the matter with her?'
"'Who wanted to know, my dear?'
"'That horribly dressed, red-faced person who sat half-way down the table, next to that frightful frump in a turban from Persia.'
"'I don't know any Eliza!'
"'But you said you did.'
"'I said I did?'
"'Yes; he told me so. You wrote him! Now be good enough, Catherine, to let me know in advance who you——'
"'But I never told anybody about Eliza; never heard of her.'
"'You did, I tell you. You told that fellow who winks all the time, with some beastly thing the matter with his eyes.'
"'You mean Sir John Catnall? The man who came in just as we were going in to dinner? That is, I suppose it was he. Barton told me we were waiting for him.'