like them as a rule, but I’ll forgive you this once!”
“Do!” said Lucio, with one of his dazzling smiles that caused her to stop for a moment in her voluble chatter and observe him with mingled fascination and wonderment.
“And you too are young, like Mr Tempest,”—she resumed presently.
“Pardon me!” interrupted Lucio—“I am many years older.”
“Really!” exclaimed Lord Elton at this juncture—“You don’t look it, does he Charlotte?”
Miss Fitzroy thus appealed to, raised her elegant tortoise-shell-framed glasses to her eyes and peered critically at us both.
“I should imagine the prince to be slightly the senior of Mr Tempest”—she remarked in precise high-bred accents—“But only very slightly.”
[p 130]
“Anyhow,” resumed Miss Chesney “you’re young enough, to enjoy your wealth aren’t you?”
“Young enough, or old enough;—just as you please;”—said Lucio with a careless shrug—“But as it happens—I do not enjoy it!”
Miss Chesney’s whole aspect now expressed the most lively astonishment.