The Duchess, who was a tall, graceful woman, with masses of fair hair only faintly interspersed with gray, very fine brown eyes, the complexion of a girl, and, to quite her own confession, the manners of a kitchen maid, stared at him for a moment without any response.
"Sir Everard Dominey ?" she repeated.

"Everard?
Ridiculous!" Dominey's extended hand was at once withdrawn, and the tentative smile faded from his lips.

The lawyer plunged into the breach.
"I can assure your Grace," he insisted earnestly, "that there is no doubt whatever about Sir Everard's identity.

He only returned from Africa during the last few days." The Duchess's incredulity remained, wholly good-natured but ministered to by her natural obstinacy.
"I simply cannot bring myself to believe it," she declared.

"Come, I'll challenge you.