The Earl smiled, half turning his face to her.
"Sir Francis stands excused, by me at least, though he flung back my favour at me like a fool, and so has given me some trouble for nothing."
Miss Chressham twisted her fine fingers together.
"We have not come to discuss Sir Francis. I think of Selina, and of the fact that she asked me to help her."
"How help her?" asked my lord slowly. "Have you not said Sir Francis believes the paragraph a lie?"
"There are those believe it true."
Rose Lyndwood shrugged his shoulders.
"There is not a lady of fashion in town, nor any who has had the name of a belle, who has not been flicked at in the Gazette."
Susannah answered impatiently.