"I don't know whether to be grateful or not for that," remarked Drake.
"Are we all so conceited?"
"Well, I think you are all pretty well satisfied with yourselves," she
replied. "I never knew any nation so firmly convinced that it was the
pick of creation; and I expect before I am here very long I shall become
as fully convinced as you are that the world was made by special
contract for the use and amusement of the English. Mind, I won't say
that it could have been made for a better people."
"That's rather severe," said Drake. "But don't you forget that you were
English yourself a few years ago; that, in a sense, you are English
still."
"That's very nicely said," she remarked; "more especially as I didn't
quite deserve it. I was wanting to see whether I could make you angry."
Drake stared at her with astonishment.
"Why on earth should you want to make me angry?" he asked.
"Well, I've heard a great deal about you," she replied. "And all the
people who talked about you told me that you were rather hot-tempered.
Lady Northgate, for instance, assured me you could be a perfect bear
when you liked."
Drake smiled.
"That was extremely kind of Lady Northgate."
"Well, so long as it wasn't true. I've heard so much about you that I
was quite anxious to see you. I am speaking to Lord Drake Selbie, am I
not?"
"That's my name," said Drake.
"The nephew of Angleford?"
Drake nodded.
She looked up at him as if waiting to see how he took the mention of his
uncle's name; but Drake's face could be as impassive as a stone wall
when he liked.
"You know my uncle?" he asked, in a tone of polite interest.
"Yes," she said; "very well. I met him when he was in America. His wife
is a great friend of mine. You know her, of course?"
"I'm sorry to say I have not had that pleasure," said Drake. "I was
absent from England when the present Lady Angleford came over, after her
marriage."
"Oh, yes," said the lady. "I suppose I ought not to have mentioned her?"
"Good heavens! Why not?" asked Drake.
"Well, of course," she drawled slowly, but musically, "I know that Lord
Angleford's marriage was a bad thing for you. It wouldn't be my fault if
I didn't, seeing that everybody in London has been talking about it."