. Sometimes her talk was brilliantly allusive; at others it was
frothy chatter. One day it really irritated him. She had been
fluttering about the sitting-room opening on to the terrace, which Lady
Tallant had made over to her guest. An English mail had come in. She
read him bits of a letter from Molly Gaverick and made explanatory,
satiric comments upon those impecunious, aristocratic relatives who
were on the fringe of the London smart set of which Bridget herself had
lately formed a yet more outside part.

'Chris Gaverick has gone into the wine business, and they've taken a
tiny house in Davies Street, Berkeley Square, and the Eaton Place house
pays its rent ... You don't understand? ... No.... Molly and I talked
it out when they were married. Of course, it seemed madness, with their
means to take a house in Eaton Place. They ought to have had one in
Bayswater. But it has answered splendidly. You see, they put their
wedding presents into it and let it for the season, and managed to live
rent free and have the use of other people's motors and all the going
about they wanted without paying even for their food ... and no expense
of entertaining, outside a dinner or two at Hurlingham.... Cadging!...
In London Society everybody cadges except the millionaires--and they're
cadged upon... You see, as Molly said, you can't entertain in
Bayswater, or know the right people, and go about to the right houses,
which is the most important thing for a poor couple who want to keep
their heads up. Now the result is that Chris is able to bring in
quantities of clients and gets a commission on all the wine he
sells.... What's the matter, Colin? You look quite fierce.'

'And that,' commented McKeith, 'is an English belted Earl!'

'Irish--there's a difference. And are they belted--really? Isn't it a
figure of speech?'

'I don't know, and I don't care.'

'But wouldn't you care to hear Molly's account of their visit to the
Duke and Duchess of Brockenhurst to meet the King and Queen of
Hartenburg? Molly is very sorry I wasn't there. She says that it would
have made everything so much nicer for her and Chris, and that the King
might have ordered some wine from his firm.'

She was teasing. He knew it, and it infuriated him.

'Oh, no doubt you're sorry too that you weren't there with the Duke and
Duchess, and the King and Queen, and your cousins, the Earl and
Countess,' he flung at her.

'They'll be your cousins too--by marriage. And i