“Of course,” he laughed. “Could he say otherwise?”
“Ah! I don’t know. He might if he was not acquainted with me.”
“Then he is acquainted with you?” exclaimed Dudley quickly.
“No, why—how silly! I really do not know your friend. Indeed, I have never heard of him. It seems that if what you tell me is correct I have an unknown admirer.”
Dudley smiled. He was reflecting upon the colonel’s warning, and her replies to his questions made it all the more plain that she was denying knowledge of a man with whom she was well acquainted.
“Did he say when he had met me?” she asked.
“I don’t really recollect. The conversation took place while several other persons were talking loudly, and many of his words were lost to me.”
“He discussed my merits before we met at the duchess’s, I presume?”
“Yes. As I had not at that time the honour of your acquaintance, I took but little heed of the conversation.”
She looked at him with a covert glance, and with her fingers turned one of her rings round and round in a quick, nervous way. What, she was wondering, had Colonel Murray-Kerr said about her? The fact that she had been discussed by him was to her extremely disconcerting.