“Thank you, Lady Lawless, I’m glad you have asked me. But—” He glanced to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir Duke’s arm, and paused.
“We are hoping,” she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a little dryly, “that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride”—the name sounded so ludicrous—“will join us.”
“He’ll be proud enough, you may be sure. It’s a singular combination, Pride and myself, isn’t it? But, you see, he has a fortune which, as yet, he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him. We are partners, and, though you mightn’t think it, he has got more money now than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a few millions at a critical time.”
Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters’s arm. “I am going to do you a great favour. You see that young lady coming to us with my husband? Well, I am going to introduce you to her. It is such as she—such women—who will convince you—”
“Yes?”
“—that you have yet to make your—what shall I call it?—Ah, I have it: your ‘biggest deal,’—and, in truth, your best.”
“Is that so?” rejoined Vandewaters musingly. “Is that so? I always thought I’d make my biggest deal in the States. Who is she? She is handsome.”
“She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan.”
“I don’t understand about ‘The Honourable.’”
“I will explain that another time.”