"The moon is a long ways off," he ventured.
"Not farther from us than the world in which these earls and lords have
their being," she retorted. "It all seems so--so impertinent to me,
when I am reading it. Of what interest can the lives of these people be
to us, to me, Nell Lorton? I never heard of Lord Angleford, and
Lord--what is it?--Lord Selbie, before; did you?"
He glanced at her, then looked fixedly through the window.
"I've heard of them--yes," he said reluctantly.
"Ah, well, you are better informed than I am," said Nell, laughing
softly. "There's Dick; he's calling me. Do you mind being left? He will
make an awful row if I don't go out."
"Certainly not. Go by all means!" he said. "And thank you for--all the
trouble you have taken."
Nell nodded and hurried out, and Mr. Vernon leaned back and bit at his
mustache thoughtfully, not to say irritably.
"I feel like a bounder," he muttered. "Why the blazes didn't I give my
right name? I wonder what they'd say--how that girl would look--if I
told them that I was the Lord Selbie this rag was cackling about? Shall
I tell them? No. It would be awkward now. I shall be gone in a day or
two, and they needn't know."