“There’ll be a horrible hubbub, you know, Emily.”
“Most probably. I shall get the blame; ‘cela se conçoit’.”
“Young Harrington goes the day after to-morrow. Thought it better not to pack him off in a hurry.”
“And just before the pic-nic; no, certainly. I suppose it would look odd.”
“How are we to get rid of the Countess?”
“Eh? This Bautru is amusing, Franks; but he’s nothing to Vandy. “Homme incomparable!” On the whole I find Menage rather dull. The Countess? what an accomplished liar that woman is! She seems to have stepped out of Tallemant’s Gallery. Concerning the Countess, I suppose you had better apply to Melville.”
“Where the deuce did this young Harrington get his breeding from?”
“He comes of a notable sire.”
“Yes, but there’s no sign of the snob in him.”
“And I exonerate him from the charge of ‘adventuring’ after Rose. George Uplift tells me—I had him in just now—that the mother is a woman of mark and strong principle. She has probably corrected the too luxuriant nature of Mel in her offspring. That is to say in this one. ‘Pour les autres, je ne dis pas’. Well, the young man will go; and if Rose chooses to become a monument of constancy, we can do nothing. I shall give my advice; but as she has not deceived me, and she is a reasonable being, I shan’t interfere. Putting the case at the worst, they will not want money. I have no doubt Tom Cogglesby means what he says, and will do it. So there we will leave the matter till we hear from Elburne House.”