Cowes was very enjoyable. The _Excelsior_ was a comfortable yacht.
Its hospitality was lavish. Dunning _père_ was perhaps inclined to
set a value on himself; the same applied to Dunning _mère_; but
Sidney Dunning, heir to half a million six per cent debentures, was
well mannered and attentive. On the slightest provocation he showed a
decided tendency to come along.
For some reason Lady Violet did not seem to warm to the Dunnings,
although she managed to take money off them at bridge, a game in which
Miss Du Rance had been recently initiated and for which she showed
quite an aptitude. But in the matter of Sidney Dunning, the sponsor
was inclined to think Mame might do worse. New money of course. Still.
_Que voulez vous?_ They lived in times when all money was new; the
Bolshies of the earth, by no means confined to Russia, had seen to
that. Sidney Dunning was really not so bad. Eton and Christ Church: a
little comically so, dear lad! But if Miss Du Rance was giving her mind
to such matters there could be no harm in Sidney Dunning. A _mère_, of
course, was bent on a title; still in Celimene’s opinion it was rather
up to Mame.
Sidney Dunning would be an insurance anyway. He was not the only
dabchick on the water; there were others good and plenty; but his
plumage was more richly feathered than theirs; and in the circumstances
he would perhaps be safer. Half a million six per cent, high-class
brewery debentures are nice things to have locked up in your husband’s
strong box when you have no money of your own. Still, a little
impertinent all this of Celimene, was not it?
Not at all. Kind of Celimene to be so interested. But Mame felt she
must take time to think over the matter. Some of the other birds on
the water were such sweet ducks that it seemed a pity to grab at the
nearest, merely because of its geographical situation.