Then they both fell into reverie, from which Darrell emerged with the
remark:
"I gather that last year some very important person interfered?"
This opened another line of gossip, in which, however, Mrs. Alcot showed
herself equally well informed. It was commonly reported, at any rate,
that the old Duke of Morecambe, the head of Lady Eleanor Cliffe's
family, the great Tory evangelical of the north, who was a sort of
patriarch in English political and aristocratic life, had been induced
by some undefined pressure to speak very plainly to his kinsman on the
subject of Lady Kitty Ashe. Cliffe had expectations from the duke which
were not to be trifled with. He had, accordingly, swallowed the lecture,
and, after the loss of his election, had again left England with an
important newspaper commission to watch events in the Balkans.
"May he stay there!" said Darrell. "Of course, the whole thing was
absurdly exaggerated."
"Was it?" said Mrs. Alcot, coolly. "Kitty richly deserved most of what
was said." Then--on his start--"Don't misunderstand me, of course. If
twenty actions for divorce were given against Kitty, I should believe
nothing--
nothing!" The words were as emphatic as voice and gesture
could make them.
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