Page:Anthony Hope - The Dolly Dialogues.djvu/120



not go with Archie?' I asked, spreading out my hands.

'It will be dull enough, anyhow,' said Dolly fretfully. 'Besides, it's awfully bourgeois to go to the theatre with one's husband.'

'Bourgeois,' I observed, 'is an epithet which the riff-raff apply to what is respectable, and the aristocracy to what is decent.'

'But it's not a nice thing to be, all the same,' said Dolly, who is impervious to the most penetrating remark.

'You're in no danger of it,' I hastened to assure her.

'How should you describe me, then?' she asked, leaning forward, with a smile.

'I should describe you, Lady Mickleham,' I replied discreetly, 'as being a little lower than the angels.'

Dolly's smile was almost a laugh as she asked,—

'How much lower, please, Mr. Carter?'

'Just by the depth of your dimples,' said I thoughtlessly. 108