Miss Asper heard of it.

Her uncle, Mr.
Quintin Manx, the millionnaire, was an acquaintance of the new Judge and titled dignitary, Sir Cramborne Wathin, and she visited Lady Wathin, at whose table the report in the journals of the Nile-boat party was mentioned.

Lady Wathin's table could dispense with witty women, and, for that matter, witty men.

The intrusion of the spontaneous on the stereotyped would have clashed.

She preferred, as hostess, the old legal anecdotes sure of their laugh, and the citations from the manufactories of fun in the Press, which were current and instantly intelligible to all her guests.