He was by no means an amusing companion.
Lazy, gentle, and ineffective, Doris quickly perceived that he was entirely eclipsed by his wife, who, now that she was relieved of Mrs.
Meadows, was soon surrounded by a congenial company--the Home Secretary, one or two other politicians, the old General, a literary Dean, Lord Staines, a great racing man, Arthur Meadows, and one or two more.

The talk became almost entirely political--with a dash of literature.

Doris saw at once that Lady Dunstable was the centre of it, and she was not long in guessing that it was for this kind of talk that people came to Crosby Ledgers.

Lady Dunstable, it seemed, was capable of talking like a man with men, and like a man of affairs with the men of affairs.

Her political knowledge was astonishing; so, evidently, was her background of family and tradition, interwoven throughout with English political history.