Mr.Caryll took it, and slipped it into his pocket.

Her ladyship's eyebrows went up.
"Will you not read your letter, Mr.Caryll ?" she invited him, with an amazingly sudden change to amiability.
"It will keep, ma'am, to while away an hour that is less pleasantly engaged." And he took the napkin Leduc was proffering.
"You pay your correspondent a poor compliment," said she.
"My correspondent is not one to look for them or need them," he answered lightly, and dipped his spoon in the broth.
"Is she not ?" quoth her ladyship.
Mr.Caryll laughed.

"So feminine!" said he.

"Ha, ha! So very feminine--to assume the sex so readily." "'Tis an easy assumption when the superscription is writ in a woman's hand." Mr.Caryll, the picture of amiability, smiled between spoonfuls.

"Your ladyship's eyes preserve not only their beauty but a keenness beyond belief." "How could you have seen it from that distance, Sylvia ?" inquired his practical lordship.
"Then again," said her ladyship, ignoring both remarks, "there is the assiduity of this fair writer since Mr.Caryll has been in case to receive letters.