“Oh, I could not possibly advise you,” I said.  “You must weigh the advantages, and your level head will be sure to choose for the best.”

“The position of an English duchess is splendid, though, isn’t it?  An Italian duke came over last fall, and poppa thought of him for about a day.  But there is the bother of a foreign language, and all their silly ways to learn, so I told poppa I would have an English one or marry an American.  It does seem a pity I can’t have both the Baron and the Duke!” and she laughed with girlish mirth.

I thought of my conversation the night before, and wondered.

* * * * *

That evening the Duke, also, made me confidences.

He was immensely taken with Miss Trumpet, he allowed, and could almost look upon the matter as a pleasure instead of a duty now.

“If you had shown the slightest sign that you would ever care for me, I should not have thought of her, though,” he said.  “You will be sorry, one day, that you are as cold as ice.”

“Why should a person be accused of having no musical sense because one particular tune does not cause one rhapsodies?” I asked.  “The one idea of a man seems to be, if a woman does not adore him personally, it is because she is as cold as ice.  Surely that is illogical.”

He looked at me very straightly for a moment.

“I believe you do care for some one,” he said.  “I shall watch and see.”

“Very well,” I laughed.

None of the people I have met since my marriage have seemed to think it possible that I should care for Augustus, or that my wedding-ring should be the slightest bar to my feelings or their advances.

“You are a dangerously attractive woman, you know—­one’s idea of what a lady ought to look like.  And you move with a grace one never sees now.  And your eyes—­your eyes are the eyes of the Sphinx.  I fancy, if I could make you care, I would forget all the world.  I am glad you are going to-morrow.”

“I understood you to say you were greatly attracted by Miss Trumpet,” I said, demurely.

And so the evening passed.

“I think it is going all right,” Lady Tilchester said to me as we walked up-stairs together.  “They are making arrangements to meet in London, and Luffy has not been asked to join the theatre-party.”

“No.  He is going to lunch and to take them to skate,” I said.

“Oh, the clever girl!” and she laughed.  “But I expect she will decide to be a duchess, in the end.”

“If you could tell her anything especially splendid about her position at the Coronation next year, should she accept the Duke, I am sure it would have an effect.”

“Cordelia is behaving like a fool about it.  She asked them here, and made all the arrangements, and now is absolutely uncivil to them.”

“How flattered Lord Luffton ought to be!” I laughed.

“Yes, if it were any one else; but Cordelia has too many fancies.  How glad one should be that one has other interests in life!  Really, when I look round at most of my friends, I feel thankful.  Perhaps, otherwise, I should have been as they are.”