He had eaten nothing but a biscuit since breakfast, but he was ready to
go off at once, supperless, if there were a train to carry him.
Unluckily there was no train. The mail had started. Nothing till seven
o'clock next morning.
'Eat your supper, old fellow,' said Maulevrier. 'After all, the danger
may not be so desperate as I fancied this morning. Slander is the
favourite amusement of the age we live in. We must allow a margin for
exaggeration.'
'A very liberal margin,' answered Hartfield. 'No doubt the man who
warned you meant honestly, but this scandal may have grown out of the
merest trifles. The feebleness of the Masher's brain is only exceeded by
the foulness of the Masher's tongue. I daresay this rumour about Lady
Lesbia has its beginning and end among the Masher species.'
'I hope so, but--I have seen those two together--I met them at Victoria
one evening after Goodwood. Old Kirkbank was shuffling on ahead,
carrying Smithson with her, absorbing his attention by fussification
about her carriage. Lesbia and that Cuban devil were in the rear.
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