“After all,” said the duchess vaguely, “there are certain things you can’t get away from. Right and wrong, good conduct and moral rectitude, have certain well-defined limits.”
“So, for the matter of that,” replied Reginald, “has the Russian Empire. The trouble is that the limits are not always in the same place.”
Reginald and the duchess regarded each other with mutual distrust, tempered by a scientific interest. Reginald considered that the duchess had much to learn; in particular, not to hurry out of the Carlton as though afraid of losing one’s last bus. A woman, he said, who is careless of disappearances is capable of leaving town before Goodwood, and dying at the wrong moment of an unfashionable disease.
The duchess thought that Reginald did not exceed the ethical standard which circumstances demanded.