t Lady Lufton, if she
heard the words, did not completely understand them. At any rate
they did not convey to her mind at the moment the meaning they were
intended to convey. She paused to whisper a last little speech to
Frank Gresham, and then looking round, found that the gentleman who
was pressing against her dress was--the Duke of Omnium! On this
great occasion, when the misfortune could no longer be avoided, Miss
Dunstable was by no means beneath herself or her character. She
deplored the calamity, but she now saw that it was only left to her
to make the best of it. The duke had honoured her by coming to her
house, and she was bound to welcome him, though in doing so she
should bring Lady Lufton to her last gasp. "Duke," she said, "I am
greatly honoured by this kindness on the part of your grace. I hardly
expected that you would be so good to me."

"The goodness is all on the other side," said the duke, bowing over
her hand. And then in the usual course of things this would have been
all. The duke would have walked on and shown himself, would have said
a word or two to Lady Hartletop, to the bishop, to Mr. Gresham, and
such like, and would then have left the rooms by another way, and
quietly escaped. This was the duty expected from him, and this he
would have done, and the value of the party would have been increased
thirty per cent. by such doing; but now, as it was, the news-mongers
of the West End were likely to get much more out of him.

Circumstances had so turned out that he had absolutely been pressed
close against Lady Lufton, and she, when she heard the voice, and was
made positively acquainted with the fact of the great man's presence
by Miss Dunstable's words, turned round quickly, but still with much
feminine dignity, removing her dress from the contact. In doing this
she was brought absolutely face to face with the duke, so that each
could not but look full at the other. "I beg your pardon," said the
duke. They were the only words that had ever passed between them,
nor have they spoken to each other since; but simple as they were,
accompanied by the little by-play of the speakers, they gave rise
to a considerable amount of ferment in the fashionable world. Lady
Lufton, as she retreated back on to Dr. Easyman, curtsied low; she
curtsied low and slowly, and with a haughty arrangement of her
drapery that was all her own; but the curtsy, though it was eloquent,
did not say half so much,--did not reprobat