'May I speak to Sir Damask about it?' asked Miss Longestaffe, who was very urgent on the occasion.
'Well, my dear, I really don't think you ought to do that. There are little things which a man and his wife must manage together without interference.'
'Nobody can ever say that I interfered in any family. But really, Julia, when you tell me that Sir Damask cannot receive Mr Brehgert, it does sound odd. As for City people, you know as well as I do, that that kind of thing is all over now. City people are just as good as West End people.'
'A great deal better, I dare say. I'm not arguing about that. I don't make the lines; but there they are; and one gets to know in a sort of way what they are. I don't pretend to be a bit better than my neighbours. I like to see people come here whom other people who come here will like to meet. I'm big enough to hold my own, and so is Sir Damask. But we ain't big enough to introduce newcomers. I don't suppose there's anybody in London understands it better than you do, Georgiana, and therefore it's absurd my pretending to teach you. I go pretty well everywhere, as you are aware; and I shouldn't know Mr Brehgert if I were to see him.'
'You'll meet him at the Melmottes', and, in spite of all you said once, you're glad enough to go there.'
'Quite true, my dear. I don't think that you are just the person to throw that in my teeth; but never mind that. There's the butcher round the corner in Bond Street, or the man who comes to do my hair. I don't at all think of asking them to my house. But if they were suddenly to turn out wonderful men, and go everywhere, no doubt I should be glad to have them here. That's the way we live, and you are as well used to it as I am. Mr Brehgert at present to me is like the butcher round the corner.' Lady Monogram had the tickets safe under lock and key, or I think she would hardly have said this.
'He is not a bit like a butcher,' said Miss Longestaffe, blazing up in real wrath.
'I did not say that he was.'
'Yes, you did; and it was the unkindest thing you could possibly say. It was meant to be unkind. It was monstrous. How would you like it if I said that Sir Damask was like a hair-dresser?'