“About you and her ladyship, of course.”

“May I ask whom you mean by ‘her ladyship’?”

“Isn’t that correct English?”

“It can be, if applied to a lady of title. But when used with reference presumably to a young lady who is a governess, it sounds like clumsy sarcasm.”

“Governess the devil! With whom, then, have you been roaming Belgium?”

“Miss Irene Beresford, of course.”

“You’re not a fool, Captain Dalroy. Do you honestly tell me you don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“That the girl you brought from Berlin is Lady Irene Beresford, daughter of the Earl of Glastonbury.”