Judith listened, smiling, to the interchange of friendly raillery, occasionally being appealed to by one of them, to give her support to some outrageous libel on the other.
"Gordon," Fitzroy informed her, "is one of our dressier colleagues. He has seventeen pairs of boots. That's called upholding the honour of the family."
"One of Fitzroy's grosser lies, Lady Worth. Now, the really dressy member of the family is Charles."
"He has the excuse of being a hussar. They can't help being dressy, Lady Worth. However, the strain of trying to procure a sufficiency of silver lace in Spain wore the poor fellow out, and in the end he was quite thankful to be taken into the family. I say, Gordon, why didn't you join a hussar regiment? Was it because you were too fat?"
"A dignified silence," Gordon told Judith, "is the only weapon to use against vulgar persons."
"Very true. It is all jealousy, I daresay. I feel sure you could set off a hussar uniform to admiration."
"Fill it out, don't you mean?" enquired Fitzroy.
Sir Alexander was diverted from his purpose of retaliating in kind by catching sight of Barbara Childe between two riflemen. "When does that marriage take place, Lady Worth?" he asked.
"The date is not fixed."
"There's hope yet, then. That's Johnny Kincaid with her - the tall lanky one on her right. Perhaps he'll cut Charles out. Very charming fellow, Kincaid."