In the farthest corner, perched on a high window-seat--that must have required a knowledge of vaulting to reach--sat the guilty pair, dangling their feet. Anything more engaging than Miss Trumpet looked could not be imagined. The tiniest pink satin slippers peeped out of billows of exquisite _dessous_. Her little face seemed a mass of dimpling smiles. Not a trace of embarrassment appeared in her manner. "I say, Duke," she called, "you have got a sweet place here. We have been watching for the monk to pass, but he has not come yet." The Duke stepped forward to help her down. "Don't you trouble," she said. "Why, we had a gymnasium at the convent. I can jump." Lady Grenellen now appeared upon the scene. She looked like an angry cat. I turned, with Lady Tilchester, and left the rest of the party. What happened I do not know, but when they joined us all in the hall again the heiress was with the Duke, Lord Luffton walked alone, while Augustus, once more beaming, was close to Lady Grenellen's side. So it is an ill wind that blows no one any good. Next day, after a delightful shooting-lunch and a brisk walk back, the heiress came to my room and talked to me. She had apparently taken a great fancy to me, and we had had several conversations. "I don't know why, but you give me the impression that you are a stranger, too, like Aunt Martina and me," she said. "You don't look at all like the rest of the Englishwomen. Why, your back is not nearly so long. I could almost take you for an American, you are so _chic_." I laughed. "Even Lady Tilchester, who is by far the nicest and grandest of them, does not look such an aristocrat as you do." (Miss Trumpet pronounces it _arrist_-tocrat.) "I assure you, I am a very ordinary person," I said. "But you are right, I am a stranger, too." "Now I am glad to hear that," said Miss Trumpet, beginning to polish her nails with my polisher, which was lying on the dressing-table. "Because then I can talk to you. You know I have come here to sample the Duke. Poppa is so set on the idea of my being a duchess. But it seems to me, if you are going to buy a husband, you might as well buy the one you like best. Don't you think so?" "I entirely agree with you," I said, feelingly. "You would probably be happier with the one you prefer, even if he were only a humble baron." And I smiled at her slyly. "Now that is just what I wanted to ask you about. But if I took Lord Luffton, instead of the Duke, should I have to walk a long way behind at the Coronation next year?" "I am afraid you would," I said. She looked puzzled and undecided. "That is worrying me," she said. "As for the men themselves--well, we don't think so much of them over in America as you do here. It is no wonder Englishmen are so full of assurance, the way they are treated. You would never find an American woman showing a man she was madly jealous of him, like Lady Grenellen did last night. Why, we keep them in their places across the Atlantic."