"
She shook her head slowly.
"I wouldn't if I were you."
"Why not?"
Lady Carey threw away the end of her cigarette, and looked for a
moment thoughtfully at her long white fingers glittering with rings.
Then she began to draw on her gloves.
"Well, in the first place," she said, "Lucille will have no time to
spare for you. You will be de trop in decidedly an uncomfortable
position. You wouldn't find London at all a good place to live in
just now, even if you ever got there--which I am inclined to doubt.
And secondly, here am I--"
"Circe!" he murmured.
"Waiting to be entertained, in a strange country, almost friendless.
I want to be shown everything, taken everywhere. And I am dying to
see your home at Lenox. I do not think your attitude towards me in
the least hospitable."
"Come, you are judging me very quickly," he declared. "What
opportunities have I had?"
"What opportunities can there be if you sail by the Campania?"
"You might dine with me to-night at least."
"Impossible! The Dalkeiths have a party to meet me. Come too,
won't you? They love dukes--even French ones."
He shook his head.
"There is no attraction for me in a large party," he answered. "I
am getting to an age when to make conversation in return for a
dinner seems scarcely a fair exchange.
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