"You spoke, my dear Lucille," the Duchess of Dorset said, "of your departure.

Is not that a little premature ?" Lucille shrugged her beautiful shoulders, and leaned back in her corner of the couch with half-closed eyes.

The Duchess, who was very Anglo-Saxon, was an easy person to read, and Lucille was anxious to know her fate.
"Why premature ?" she asked.

"I was sent for to use my influence with Reginald Brott.

Well, I did my best, and I believe that for days it was just a chance whether I did not succeed.