It lasted him all the way from St.
Pancras to Drayton Parva.

Sir Peter did not greatly care for women's gossip; but he liked his own.

And really the provocation had been intense.

It was tit for tat, _quid pro quo_, what was sauce for the goose--the goose again! Ha! ha! ha! It was a good thing for Sir Peter that Vance had given him another two inches round the waist.
Now, to do Sir Peter justice, he had meant to keep that little bit of gossip entirely to himself, for solitary gloating over and nibbling.
But when an old gentleman has spent all his life uttering melancholy platitudes, and is suddenly delivered of a joke--of two jokes--it is a little hard to expect him to hide his light under a bushel.

He could have buried scandal in his breast forever, but to put an extinguisher on the sparks of his playful fancy--no, these things are beyond a man's control.
And as the idea of the goose, with all its subtle humor, sank deeper and deeper into Sir Peter's mind, he was irresistibly tempted to impart it to Lady Morley (in strict confidence).