‘Pray, stay and be consoled by me,’ said the fair young woman. ‘You are to point me out all the distinguished people. Is it true, that your brother has left the army?’
‘Dartrey no longer wears the red. Here comes Colonel Corfe, who does. England has her army still!’
‘His wife persuaded him?’
‘You see he is wearing the black.’
‘For her? How very very sad! Tell me—what a funnily dressed woman meeting that gentleman!’
‘Hush—a friend of the warrior. Splendid weather, Colonel Corfe.’
‘Superb toilettes!’ The colonel eyed Mrs. Blathenoy dilatingly, advanced, bowed, and opened the siege.
She decided a calculation upon his age, made a wall of it, smilingly agreed with his encomium of the Concert, and toned her voice to Fenellan’s comprehension: ‘Did it occur recently?’
‘Months; in Africa; I haven’t the date.’
‘Such numbers of people one would wish to know! Who are those ladies holding a Court, where Mr. Radnor is?’