The Earl gave an exclamation.
“Now I know who you are talking about. I knew Lord Shenley and always thought him, as you say, charming and very intelligent. I did hear that he had married again after his wife died, but did not expect anyone so young.”
He was about to add the word glamorous, but thought that it might somehow offend the Duchess.
“I have no wish to talk to you about that woman,” the Duchess said sharply, “but about The Castle. Is the garden still as beautiful as your mother made it?”
“You know that I would not fail her in that respect,” the Earl answered. “She adored the garden and someone said only last month that it was the best-laid-out garden in the whole of England.”
The Duchess sighed.
“That is exactly what your mother would have liked to hear. Although I have trie
