The butler looked horrified. "Throw you out, my lord?"
"Haven't been invited: don't know the Worths,' explained George. "I'll risk it. Where do they live?"
Judith's salons were crowded when he arrived, and since the evening was too far advanced for her to expect any more guests, she had left her station by the door and was standing at the other end of the long room, Balking to two Belgian ladies. The footman's voice, announcing Lord George, was not audible above the clatter of conversation, and Judith remained unaware of his entrance until Madame van der Capellan directed her attention towards him, desiring to know who ce beau geant might be.
She turned her head, and saw his lordship standing on the threshold, looking round him with an air of perfect sangfroid. A handsome giant was a description which exactly hit him off. He stood over six foot, in all the magnificence of a Life Guardsman's dress uniform. He was a blaze of scarlet and gold; a very dark young man with curling black hair, and dashing whiskers, gleaming white teeth, and a pair of bold, fiery eyes.
"It is Lord George Alastair," said Judith. She moved towards him, by no means pleased at the advent of this uninvited guest.
He came at once to meet her. His bow was perfection: the look that went with it was that of a schoolboy detected in crime. "Lady Worth?"
"Yes," she acknowledged. "You - !"
"I know! I know! You're not acquainted with me - don't know me from Adam - wonder how the deuce I got in!"
She was obliged to smile. "Indeed, I do know you. You are Lord George Alastair."
"Oh, come now, that's famous! I daresay you won't have me thrown out after all."