It became his fate to take an old woman into dinner who was not very clearsighted.

"Did you know that lady before ?" she asked.
"Oh, yes; I knew her two or three years ago in London." "Do you think she is pretty ?" "Certainly." "All the men say so, but I never can see it.

They have been saying ever so long that the old Duke of Omnium means to marry her on his deathbed, but I don't suppose there can be anything in it." "Why should he put it off for so very inopportune an occasion ?" asked Phineas..