“Not if I know it,” he said. Then he tried to be kind and said, “What is the lecture about?”
“The Uses of Fiction.”
“None, that I can see, except to provide some poor devil with an income.”
“That’s a man’s view.”
“It is,” he said, “a man, and not a monkey’s. You don’t call your literary crowd men, do you?”
I was just wondering what he did call them, when Lady Scilly shut him up, and I thought she looked at me. Presently he went on—
“You’re quite spoiling your set, you know, Paquerette. I used to enjoy your receptions.”
“I don’t see why you should permit yourself to abuse my set because you’re a fifth cousin. That’s the worst of being well connected, so many people think they have the right to lecture one!”
“All the better for you, my dear! Do you suppose now, that if you were not niece to a duke and cousin to a marquis, that Society would allow you to fill your house with people like Morrell Aix and Mrs. Ptomaine and Ve——”
Lady Scilly jumped up and said she must go and dress, and if he wouldn’t come to the lecture he must go, and pushed me out of the room in front of her and on up-stairs.