Mrs. Very, Mrs. Garish, Miss Bumpschus, Mr. Williegilt, Mr. Stuyvesant Mint, Joshua Jumpkin, 7th, J. Madison Mudison, Williegilt Bumpschus, Mrs. Edgerton Twaddell, The Misses Twaddell, Mr. E. Williegilt, Mr. and Mrs. Timpleton Duff, Mrs. Hegerton Humming, Miss Humming, Mr. E. Humming, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Tattler, Miss Bilberry, Miss Clarissa Mudison, Miss Tumbleton, Mr. Cecil Hash, Prince Cosmospopolis, Miss Mint, Mr. Willie Lite, Mr. Garish, Mr. Horatio Gastly. CHAPTER XVII _The Duke of Nocastle Arrives_ His Grace the Duke of Nocastle is in town, and the way the wheels are buzzing within wheels keeps me in one long headache. I must confess I am worried. As I was sitting in the Ping-Pong Club the other afternoon, gazing into the depths of a Scotch, Plumstone Smith, Jr., addressed me in an airy way. "I see that the Duke has arrived," said he smiling. I have no recollection of what I said to him, but I hope he does not report it to the governors, for I suspect that it was not the kind of language one gentleman should use to another in the club. He seems content, however, to smile at me and cut me dead. But I do not care for him, for he is nothing but one of these dingy heirlooms that is handed down in Society from generation to generation. Of course I think all will come out well in the end, but still I shall not be sure till Pearl Veal and I have walked down from the altar together and the mob at the church-door is actually pulling her dress to pieces. Naturally, the matter lies entirely with his Grace, but I find strength in the fact that Ethel Bumpschus has ten millions, while Pearl can boast but four. But Miss Bumpschus is so plain! Of course, once she became a duchess we should all rave over her beauty, but while she is an American "Miss," there are some doubts on that point. It is unfortunate that the Duke should be visiting the Bumpschuses, for distance lends enchantment, and Pearl Veal, with $4,000,000 six blocks away, must be fascinating to a man who dines daily with Miss Bumpschus and her ten. Nocastle is a relative of Nothingham, who a few years ago married a Bumpschus. His arrival in this country was announced by the papers with a great flourish of trumpets, and the social historians even went so far as to say that he was to marry Miss Ethel, that the match was one of love, pure and simple, that he had met her at Nice while he was staying there incog., and had lost his heart on sight to the sweet and simple little New Yorker. They did meet at Nice last winter; but he hurried back to England and stuck to his pride and his leaky castles till a few heavy rains had mildewed his wardrobe. Thereupon he set sail for this country to get the means to mend his roofs. To mend the roofs of a half-dozen English castles requires the fortune of a Radigan.