"Not—you don't mean—abroad, mam, in—in 'em?"
"I do, sir, I do! She swaggered down the Mall, sir ogling the women, and finding me alone and I not knowing her, she did so leer and nudge me that I all but swooned 'twixt fear and modesty, sir!"
"Good God!" ejaculated the Major, faintly, "was she—alone, madam?"
"She was with her naughty brother Charles and methought he'd die of his unseemly mirth. A wild youth, indeed and she hath the same lawless spirit, sir. All their motherless days I have cared for 'em and what with their waywardness and my own high-strung nature—O me!"
"I can conceive your days have not been—uneventful, mam."
"Charles is known to you, of course, sir?"
"No, mam."
"But your nephew Pancras and he are greatly intimate!"
"I've never even heard of him, madam."
"Why then you don't know that poor, naughty, misguided Charles is—hush, they come! Yonder, sir—O Cupid, a ravishing couple!"