ONCE upon a time there was a Pussy-cat called Ribby, who invited a little dog called Duchess to tea.
"Come in good time, my dear Duchess," said Ribby's letter, "and we will have something so very nice.
In the middle was the Duchess of Devenham, erect, stately, and with a figure which was still irreproachable notwithstanding her white hair.
"To dine at half-past seven," the Duchess remarked, as she looked around the ENTRESOL of the great restaurant through her lorgnettes, "is certainly a little trying for one's temper and for one's digestion, but so long as those men accepted, I certainly think they ought to have been here.
[Enter the DUCHESS OF BERWICK and LADY AGATHA CARLISLE C.]
Don't say that, Duchess. As a wicked man I am a complete failure.
A week later Dorian Gray was sitting in the conservatory at Selby Royal, talking to the pretty Duchess of Monmouth, who with her husband, a jaded-looking man of sixty, was amongst his guests.
"But I don't want to be rechristened, Harry," rejoined the duchess, looking up at him with her wonderful eyes.
He entered the hotel and ascended the front steps, and addressing a footman who waited there in a grand livery, asked if the
Duchess de Chevreuse was visible and if she could receive the Comte de la Fere?
The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, `For the
Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.' The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, only changing the order of the words a little, `From the Queen.
Please don't look at me like that,
Duchess. I know - this is your holy of holies, but the Duke smokes here - I've seen him.
"Tell me, brother squire," asked the
duchess (whose title, however, is not known), "this master of yours, is he not one of whom there is a history extant in print, called 'The Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha,' who has for the lady of his heart a certain Dulcinea del Toboso?"