"I'm very sorry," I said; "but really it was impossible to bring them with me." Here I most certainly meant to conclude the sentence: and it was with a feeling of utter amazement, which I cannot adequately describe, that I heard myself going on speaking. "but they are to join me here in the course of the evening" were the words, uttered in my voice, and seeming to come from my lips.
"I'm so glad!" Lady Muriel joyfully replied. "I shall enjoy introducing them to some of my friends here! When do you expect them?"
I took refuge in silence. The only honest reply would have been "That was not my remark. I didn't say it, and it isn't true!" But I had not the moral courage to make such a confession. The character of a 'lunatic' is not, I believe, very difficult to acquire: but it is amazingly difficult to get rid of: and it seemed quite certain that any such speech as that would quite justify the issue of a writ 'de lunatico inquirendo.'
Lady Muriel evidently thought I had failed to hear her question, and turned to Arthur with a remark on some other subject; and I
