He took it from her to inspect it more closely. “Very pretty. Where did you get it?”
“At Rundell and Bridge. I bought several there.”
He gave it back to her. “You have good taste.”
“Thank you,” said Judith. “To have earned the approval of so notable a connoisseur as yourself must afford me gratification.”
He smiled. “Do not be impertinent, Miss Taverner.”
She flicked open the box, and offered it to him. “You mistake me, Lord Worth: I was being civil—in your own manner.”
“You have not mastered the precise way of it,” he answered. “No, don’t offer your box to me; it is not a mixture that I like.”
“Indeed! How odd!” said Miss Taverner, raising a pinch to one nostril with a graceful turn of her wrist. “I do not like it either.”
“That is probably because you have drenched it with Vinagrillo,” said the Earl calmly. “I warned you to be sparing in the use of it.”
“I have not drenched it with Vinagrillo!” said Miss Taverner, indignantly shutting her box. “I used two drops, just to moisten the whole!”