I can tell you something more extraordinary than that.

The public likes it too.

Just because I am not a public character, every reference to me must be of an exclusively personal kind.

And that's just the sort of reference which the public eats.

It is much more thrilled by the simple announcement that a Sir Chichester Splay, of whom it has never heard, has bought a new pair of purple socks with white stripes than it would be by a full account of a Cabinet crisis." Once more the company laughed at Sir Chichester's apology for his foible.
Lady Splay turned to Hillyard.
"And who is the ingenious man who discovered this way of keeping the peace at Senga ?" Hillyard suddenly hesitated.
"A great friend of mine," he answered with his eyes on Millie Splay's face.