All his pleasant face wondered—he seemed to take it as another of her rather stiff riddles. “What people do you mean?”
“The eminent people; the authors and artists; the clever people.”
“Oh there are other eminent people besides those!” said Lord Lambeth.
“Well, you certainly keep them apart,” Bessie earnestly contended.
“And there are plenty of other clever people.”
It was spoken with a fine simple faith, yet the tone of it made her laugh. “‘Plenty’? How many?”
On another occasion—just after a dinner-party—she mentioned something else in England she didn’t like.
“Oh I say!” he cried; “haven’t you abused us enough?”
“I’ve never abused you at all,” said Bessie; “but I don’t like your ‘precedence.’”
She was to feel relieved at his not taking it solemnly. “It isn’t my precedence!”