Some knew which cemetery.
The very first lady Mr.Sandys ever took in to dinner mentioned this rumour to him, not with vulgar curiosity, but delicately, with a hint of sympathy in waiting, and it must be remembered, in fairness to Tommy, that all artists love sympathy.

This sympathy uncorked him, and our Tommy could flow comparatively freely at last.

Observe the delicious change.
"Has that story got abroad ?" he said simply.

"The matter is one which, I need not say, I have never mentioned to a soul." "Of course not," the lady said, and waited eagerly.
If Tommy had been an expert he might have turned the conversation to brighter topics, but he was not; there had already been long pauses, and in dinner talk it is perhaps allowable to fling on any faggot rather than let the fire go out.

"It is odd that I should be talking of it now," he said musingly.
"I suppose," she said gently, to bring him out of the reverie into which he had sunk, "I suppose it happened some time ago ?" "Long, long ago," he answered.