" What is it? " asked the countess, startled; but seeing by her daughter's face that it was only mischief, she shook a finger at her sternly with a threatening and forbidding movement of her head.
" We have stopped being able to offer any weddings of any substantial size because of Brexit, " Carnarvon, a countess who owns Highclere with her husband, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon, said.
The countess especially displayed that amiable condescension characteristic of great ladies whom no contact with baser mortals can sully, and was absolutely charming.
The countess herself and her handsome eldest daughter were in the drawing room with the visitors who came to congratulate, and who constantly succeeded one another in relays.
Next appeared the count and countess, followed by the manufacturer and his wife, after whom came Loiseau, pushing his larger and better half before him.
" Why do you say this young man is so rich? " asked the countess, turning away from the girls, who at once assumed an air of inattention. " His children are all illegitimate. I think Pierre also is illegitimate."
The countess was upset by her friend's sorrow and humiliating poverty, and was therefore out of sorts, a state of mind which with her always found expression in calling her maid " my dear" and speaking to her with exaggerated politeness.