“And what are they called?”
“One of them’s married. She’s the Countess of Pimlico.”
“And the other?”
“The other’s unmarried—she’s plain Lady Julia.”
Bessie entered into it all. “Is she very plain?”
He began to laugh again. “You wouldn’t find her so handsome as her brother,” he said; and it was after this that he attempted to dissuade the heir of the Duke of Bayswater from accepting Mrs. Westgate’s invitation. “Depend upon it,” he said, “that girl means to have a go at you.”
“It seems to me you’re doing your best to make a fool of me,” the modest young nobleman answered.
“She has been asking me,” his friend imperturbably pursued, “all about your people and your possessions.”
“I’m sure it’s very good of her!” Lord Lambeth returned.
“Well, then,” said Percy, “if you go straight into it, if you hurl yourself bang upon the spears, you do so with your eyes open.”