Nesta glanced at Dudley Sowerby. She liked him for his pained frown at the part his countrymen were made to play, but did wish that he would keep from expressing it in a countenance that suggested a worried knot; and mischievously she said: ‘Do you take to Delphica?’
He replied, with an evident sincerity, ‘I cannot say I do.’
Had Mr. Semhians been modelled on him?
‘One bets on the German, of course—with Colney Durance,’ Victor said to Dr. Themison, leading him over the grounds of Lakelands.
‘In any case, the author teaches us to feel an interest in the rivals. I want to know what comes of it,’ said the doctor.
‘There’s a good opportunity, one sees. But, mark me, it will all end in satire upon poor Old England. According to Colney, we excel in nothing.’
‘I do not think there is a country that could offer the entertainment for which I am indebted to you to-day.’
‘Ah, my friend, and you like their voices? The contralto?’
‘Exquisite.’
Dr. Themison had not spoken the name of Radnor.