He came up now, frowning, and out of temper.
'Upon my word, Eugénie, the blindness of some people is too amazing!'
'Is it? Sit down, papa, and look at that!'
She pushed a chair towards him, smiling, and pointed to the terrace, the woods, the sky.
'It's all very well, my dear,' said Lord Findon, seating himself--'but this place tries me a good deal.'
'Because the ladies in the restaurant are so stout?' said Eugénie. 'Dear papa--somebody must keep these cooks in practice!'
'Never did I see such spectacles!' said Lord Findon, fuming. 'And when one knows that the very smallest attention to their diet--and they might be sylphs again--as young as their grandchildren!--it's really disheartening.'
'It is,' said Eugénie. 'Shall we announce a little conference in the salon? I'm sure the ladies would flock.'
'The amount the French eat is appalling!' exclaimed Lord Findon--without noticing. 'And they have such ridiculous ideas about us! I said something about their gluttony to M. de Villeton this morning--and he fired up!--declared he had spent this summer in English country-houses, and we had seven meals a day--all told--and there wasn't a Frenchman in the world had more than three--counting his coffee in the morning.'
'Not at all! It doesn't matter _when_ you eat--it's what and how much you eat. We _can't_ produce such women as one sees here. I tell you, Eugénie, we _can't_. It takes all the poetry out of the sex.'
'Haven't you been walking with Lady Marney, papa?'
'She's an exception, my dear--a hideous exception.'
'I wouldn't mind her size,' said Eugénie, softly--'if only the complexion were better done.'
'Paint is on the increase,' he declared--'and gambling too. Villeton tells me there was baccarat in the Marney's' apartment last night, and Lady Marney lost enormously. Age seems to have no effect on these people. She must be nearly seventy-five.'
'You may be sure she'll play till the last trump,' said Eugénie. 'Papa!'--her tone changed--'is that Elsie's chair?'
The group to which she pointed was still distant, but Lord Findon, even at seventy, had the eyes of an eagle, and could read an _affiche_ a mile off.
'It is.' Lord Findon looked a little disturbed, and, turning, he scanned the terrace up and down before he bent towards Eugénie.