The Countess was looking at him with most flattering attention.

“Your arm!” she exclaimed. “It is all tied up! Was it you then⁠—?”

Jimmy made her a mock bow.

“I’m so glad I’ve got a cultured, English voice,” he said. “And I can assure you that I wouldn’t have dreamed of using the language I did if I had had any suspicion that a lady was present.”

“I did not understand all of it,” the Countess hastened to explain. “Although I had an English governess when I was young⁠—”

“It wasn’t the sort of thing she’d be likely to teach you,” agreed Jimmy. “Kept you busy with your uncle’s pen, and the umbrella of the gardener’s niece. I know the sort of stuff.”