“As he knows to his cost,” she said, smiling and shaking her head at her husband.
“So I can testify,” put in The Duke.
“Ah! I can't do anything with you,” she replied, turning to him.
“Your most abject slave,” he replied with a profound bow.
“If you only were,” smiling at him—a little sadly, I thought—“I'd keep you out of all sorts of mischief.”
“Quite true, Duke,” said her husband, “just look at me.”
The Duke gazed at him a moment or two. “Wonderful!” he murmured, “what a deliverance!”
“Nonsense!” broke in Lady Charlotte. “You are turning my mind away from my purpose.”
“Is it possible, do you think?” said The Duke to her husband.
“Not in the very least,” he replied, “if my experience goes for anything.”