“One comes from home to hear news. Will you not tell us all about it, then?”
“No, I will not. I think you are positively rude; but that is like you English. There, I beg your pardon; you made me say it. But, seriously now, is not Mr. Irving as rich as—”
“Claude Melnotte?”
“No; Crœsus, or Vanderbilt, or Mackay? And does he not live in that palace, and have crowds of servants, and visit with the court and the aristocracy? Why, I read in the papers myself, quite lately, of an estate he had bought near, let me see,—is there such a place as Hammersmith?”
“Yes.”
“Is that on the Thames?”
“Yes, more or less.”
“Well, then, is that true? More or less, I suppose. You are thinking how inquisitive I am. But you started the subject.”
“Did I?”
“You said he lives in chambers.”