Alexander was shocked.
"I mean to say, Sheila——" began his lordship.
"Did you hear me, Alexander?"
"I've got to stand out in Cadogan Gardens, my lady——"
"Shall I repeat it again, slowly?"
"I heard you, my lady."
"Very well. Show the gentleman into the library. You have only five minutes."
With an appealing look towards Lord Vignoles, who, having ostentatiously removed and burnished his eyeglass, seemed to experience some difficulty in replacing it, Alexander departed.
"I claim him!" cried Zoe, as the footman disappeared. "Whoever he is or whatever he's like, he shall take me in to dinner!"
"What I mean to say is," blurted Vignoles, "that it would be all right at a country-house party at Christmas, say——"