Suddenly the Duchess interrupted. "Sir Wilfrid, you have seen Lady Henry; which did she mind most--the coming-in or the coffee?"
Bury returned, smiling, to the tea-table.
"The coming-in would have been nothing if it had led quickly to the going-out. It was the coffee that ruined you."
"I see," said the Duchess, pouting--"it meant that it was possible for us to enjoy ourselves without Lady Henry. That was the offence."
"Precisely. It showed that you were enjoying yourselves. Otherwise there would have been no lingering, and no coffee."
"I never knew coffee so fatal before," sighed the Duchess. "And now"--it was evident that she shrank from the answer to her own question--"she is really irreconcilable?"
"Absolutely. Let me beg you to take it for granted."
"She won't see any of us--not me?"
Sir Wilfrid hesitated.
"Make the Duke your ambassador."