“Mayn’t I pay you compliments because I have a cough?”
“You may not; they don’t sound appropriate.”
“That’s very cruel of you. I think I shall go home.”
“No; wait till you’re rested. Do you know if the Mertons have a young man coming to stay with them soon?”
“A young man, lydy? What’s his name?”
“I don’t know. He nearly killed Bernard and Vronsky with his motor-car, and Bernard was immensely taken with him. He is young, in the army, stationed at Swanborough, a friend of the Mertons, and Bernard generally calls him the dude.”
Dolly’s curiosity was not to be satisfied yet. Lucian shook his head.
“Couldn’t say, my dear girl. There are any number of young officers at Swanborough, all as like as peas, and you can’t call it a distinction to run down Vronsky. If he hadn’t done it, now—”
“I thought you might have known from the Mertons; you know Mrs. Merton, don’t you?”
“I used to, before she was married; I haven’t kept up with all her distinguished acquaintances since. Ah! There were days when she loved me dearly. Once when I was a sandwich-man she walked up and down Fleet Street with me for an hour. I was carrying the advertisements of ‘Woman—the Charmer,’ and I could hear everybody saying it was an object-lesson.”