So I said:  “No, nor till after the ices, unless one has something to say.”

He was so surprised that his eyeglass dropped, and he had to fumble to find it, so by that time I had begun to talk to old Colonel Blake, who was at the other side of me.

[Sidenote:  The Game of Bridge]

Lady Doraine was looking so pretty; her hair has grown much fairer and nicer than it was at Nazeby.  Lord Doraine is here too; his eyes are so close together!  He plays a game called “Bridge” with Mr. Wertz and Mr. Hodgkinson and Tom all the time—­I mean in the afternoon before dinner—­so Mr. Hodgkinson told me when we got to dessert.  I suppose it was the first thing he had found to say!  I asked him if it was a kind of leapfrog; because don’t you remember we called it “Bridge” when you had to jump two?  He said No; that it was a game of cards, and much more profitable if one had the luck of Lord Doraine, who had won heaps of money from Mr. Wertz.  Afterwards, in the drawing-room, Lady Doraine came up to me and asked me where I had been hiding since the Nazeby visit, and when she heard I had been in France, she talked a lot about the fashions.  She has such a splendid new rope of pearls, and such lovely clothes.  The Rooses are here too, and Jane has a cold in her head.  She says she heard by this evening’s post that Miss La Touche is going to be married to old Lord Kidminster, and that he is “too deaf to have heard everything, so it is just as well.”  I can’t see why, as Miss La Touche is so nice, and never talks rubbish; so I think it a pity he can’t hear all she says, don’t you?

Lady Doraine calls Octavia “darling!” She stood fiddling with her diamond chain and purring over her frock, so I suppose she is fond of her in spite of Octavia hating her.

[Sidenote:  An Englishman’s Views]

After dinner Lord Valmond came up to me at once.  I felt in such a good temper, it was hard to be very stiff, he seemed so awfully glad to see me.  He said I might have let him know what day it was that I crossed over to France after leaving Hazeldene Court—­he would have taken such care of me.  I said I was quite able to take care of myself.  Then he asked me if the people were nice in France? and when I said perfectly charming, he said some Frenchwomen weren’t bad but the men were monkeys.  I said it showed how little he knew about them, I had found them delightful, always polite and respectful and amusing, quite a contrast to some English people one was obliged to meet.

His eyes blazed like two bits of blue fire, and when he looked like that, it made my heart beat, Mamma, I don’t know why.  He is so nice-looking, of course no Frenchman could compare to him, but I was obliged to go on praising them because it annoyed him so.  He said I must have stayed there ages, he had been wondering and wondering when he was to see me again.  He said Mr. Hodgkinson was an ass, and he had been watching us at dinner.