Do you know whose niece she is, and whom she is
staying with?"
"How should I, my dear boy?" she answered.
"Her uncle is Phineas Duge," Guy said. "He has given his consent to our
marriage, and told me to send my lawyer to him to-morrow."
"Bless the boy, what luck!" Lady Medlincourt exclaimed. "Why, he's the
richest man in America."
Guy nodded.
"I don't care a bit," he said, "except that it will make all you people
so much more decent to Virginia. Come along round to Claridge's and be
introduced. There's just time."
The dinner-party that night was a great success. In the middle of it
Lady Medlincourt laughed softly to herself.
"I must tell you all something," she said. "You know Guy went to America
this year to see his cousin who is out ranching. He was so afraid that
people would think he had gone out to find an American heiress--you know
we're all disgracefully poor--that he stayed in New York, and came back,
under an assumed name. In fact, he was only in New York for two days,
for fear that some one should find him out. And to think, Guy," she
exclaimed, "that you are going to do the conventional thing after all!"
"My dear lady," Phineas Duge said, "the conventions in your wonderful
country are not things to be trifled with.
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