In your position, my dear boy, you cannot neglect our English customs without producing the worst possible impression." In two words, I found myself pledged, under pretence of visiting my lord, to improve my acquaintance with Lady Lena on the next day.
"And pray be careful," Mrs.Roylake proceeded, still braving the atmosphere of the smoking-room, "not to look surprised if you find Lord Uppercliff's house presenting rather a poor appearance just now." I was dying for another cigar, and I entirely misunderstood the words of warning which had just been addressed to me.

I tried to bring our interview to a close by making a generous proposal.
"Does he want money ?" I asked.

"I'll lend him some with the greatest pleasure." Mrs.Roylake's horror expressed itself in a little thin wiry scream.
"Oh, Gerard, what people you must have lived among! What shocking ignorance of my lord's enormous fortune! He and his family have only just returned to their country seat, after a long absence--parliament you know, and foreign baths, and so on--and their English establishment is not yet complete.

I don't know what mistake you may not make next.

Do listen to what I want to say to you." Listening, I must acknowledge, with an absent mind, my attention was suddenly seized by Mrs.Roylake--without the slightest conscious effort towards that end, on the part of the lady herself.
The first words that startled me, in her flow of speech, were these: "And I must not forget to tell you of poor Lord Uppercliff's misfortune.
He had a fall, some time since, and broke his leg.