Selina looked at him in surprise.
“You are very – kind, but I always – understood that Englishmen seldom pay – compliments.”
“I am not being complimentary,” Lord Howdrith said. “I am merely stating a fact.”
Selina looked ahead and wondered what she should reply to that. She had not expected to have this sort of conversation with Lord Howdrith and she thought how shy it made her and realise how inexperienced she was.
Madame Letessier would know exactly what to answer if any gentleman said the same sort of thing to her. She would undoubtedly be witty and amusing and would accept such a bouquet of words with an elegance that was characteristic of everything she did.
‘No wonder Quintus admires her so much,’ Selina thought, ‘while I am behaving like a silly schoolgirl!’
Lord Howdrith’s ne
