Ard._ Ah, that _does_ make such a difference, doesn't it?
(_She feels she must make an effort to recover lost ground._) I fully
expected to be at Homburg this year.
_Mrs. All._ Then you would have met Lady NEURALINE MENTHOL She _was_
ordered there, I happen to know.
_Mrs. Ard._ Really, you don't say so? Lady NEURALINE! Well, that's the
first _I've_ heard of it. (_It is also the first time she has heard of
HER, but she trusts to be spared so humiliating an admission._)
_Mrs. All._ It's a fact, I can assure you. You know her, perhaps?
_Mrs. Ard._ (_who would dearly like to say she does, if she only
dared_). Well, I can hardly say I exactly _know_ her. I know _of_ her.
I've met her about, and so on. (_She tells herself this is quite as
likely to be true as not._)
_Mrs. All._ (_who, of course, does not know Lady NEURALINE either_).
Ah, she is a most delightful person--requires _knowing_, don't you
know.
_Mrs. Ard._ So many in her position do, don't they? (_So far as she
is concerned--they ALL do._) You'd think it was haughtiness--but it's
really only _manner_.
_Mrs. All._ (_feeling that she can go ahead with safety now_).
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