She laughed again, as she finished; but a fleeting change of expression had passed over her face.
Clodagh looked up smilingly.
"And where is the likeness to me?" she asked.
"Oh, you are both above mere human temptations, Mrs. Milbanke!" Luard broke in irrepressibly.
Lord Deerehurst, who had been listening to the conversation, lifted his eyeglass.
"But then Sir Walter Gore has been ten times round the world," he remarked in his thin, dry voice. "And this is Mrs. Milbanke's first visit to Venice."
Again they all laughed, and Clodagh coloured.
"You think my stoicism would not wear well?" she asked.
Deerehurst looked at her searchingly.
"Stoicism may be born of many characteristics," he said. "I am not in a position to say from what yours springs. But"—he lowered his voice.—"I do not think you are a natural stoic."