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. English statesmen had not only dandled her, they had taught
her, walked with her, written to her, and--no doubt--flirted with her.
Doris, as she listened to her, disliked her heartily, and at the same
time could not help being thrilled by so much knowledge, so much contact
with history in the making, and by such a masterful way, in a woman,
with the great ones of the earth. "What a worm she must think me!"
thought Doris--"what a worm she _does_ think me--and the likes of me!"
At the same time, the spectator must needs admit there was something
else in Lady Dunstable's talk than mere intelligence or mere
mannishness.
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