“Oh, he knows everybody.”
“Yes, and every one, which is quite another thing; and the woman has never given me an hour's quiet since. She presents me with bouquets, and fruit, and every imaginable thing I don't want, herself included, at least once a day; and I assure you I live in hourly terror of her getting into the drawing-room. You don't know anything about them?”
“I only know that her husband made a great deal of money by a contract.”
“That sounds very badly, and she is such a vulgar woman?”
“I know no more of them; but Lady May had her to Raleigh Hall, and surely she can satisfy your scruples.”
“No, it was my guardian who asked for their card, so that goes for nothing. It is really too bad.”
“My heart bleeds for you.”
“By-the-bye, talking of Lady May, I had a visit from her not a quarter-of-an-hour ago. What a fuss our friends at Mortlake do make about the death of that disagreeable old man!—Alice, I mean. Richard Arden bears it wonderfully. When did you see either?” she asked, innocently.
“You forget he has not been dead three weeks, and Alice Arden is not likely to see any one but very intimate friends for a long time; and—and I daresay you have heard that Sir Richard Arden and I are not on very pleasant terms.”
“‘Oh! Pity such difference should be——.’”