And now, at this very moment, as Lady
Lufton was making her civil speeches to young Gresham, apparently in
no hurry to move on, and while Miss Dunstable was endeavouring to
whisper something into the doctor's ear, which would make him feel
himself at home in this new world, a sound was heard which made that
lady know that half her wish had at any rate been granted to her. A
sound was heard--but only by her own and one other attentive pair of
ears. Mrs. Harold Smith had also caught the name, and knew that the
duke was approaching. There was great glory and triumph in this; but
why had his grace come at so unchancy a moment? Miss Dunstable had
been fully aware of the impropriety of bringing Lady Lufton and the
Duke of Omnium into the same house at the same time; but when she had
asked Lady Lufton, she had been led to believe that there was no hope
of obtaining the duke; and then, when that hope had dawned upon her,
she had comforted herself with the reflection that the two suns,
though they might for some few minutes be in the same hemisphere,
could hardly be expected to clash, or come across each other's
orbits. Her rooms were large and would be crowded; the duke would
probably do little more than walk through them once, and Lady Lufton
would certainly be surrounded by persons of her own class.
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