You have
three other daughters and they have all married to your complete
satisfaction. I don't think that I shall ever be a very black sheep but
you must look upon me as outside the fold.--I hope you will stay to
lunch. Colonel Fosbrook is bringing his sister and the Princess is
coming."
The Duchess rose to her feet. The family dignity justified itself in
her cold withdrawal.
"Thank you, Jane," she said, "I am engaged. I am glad to know, however,
that you still have one or two respectable friends."
The setting was the same only the atmosphere seemed somehow changed when
Jane received her second visitor that day. She was waiting for him in
the small sitting room into which no other visitor save members of the
family were ever invited. There was a comfortable fire burning, the
roses which had come from him a few hours before were everywhere
displayed, and Jane herself, in a soft brown velvet gown, rose to her
feet, comely and graceful, to welcome him.
"So we are immortalised!" she exclaimed, smiling.
"That wretched rag!" he replied. "I was hoping you wouldn't see it.
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