You could have
dragged me down a little way into the pit of broken hearts! Why didn't
you?"
He frowned.
"One is forced to neglect a few opportunities!"
She smiled at him--delightfully.
"You foolish man!" she murmured. "Some day or other, you will turn out
to be a terrible impostor. Do you know, I think I am going to ask you
again--what I asked you last night?"
"I scarcely think that you will be so ill-advised," he declared
coldly. "Whether you believe it or not, I can assure you that I am
incapable of affection."
She sighed.
"I am not so sure about that," she said with protesting eyebrows, "but
you are terribly hard-hearted?"
He was entirely dissatisfied with the impression he had produced. He
considered the attitude of the Marchioness unjustifiably frivolous. He
had an uneasy conviction that she was not in the least inclined to
take him seriously.
"I don't think," he said, glancing at the clock, "that I need detain
you any longer."
"You are really going away, then?" she asked him softly.
"Yes."
"To call on Lady Ruth, perhaps?"
"As it happens, no," he answered.
Suddenly her face changed--she had remembered something.
"It was Lady Ruth!" she exclaimed.
"Exactly!" he interrupted.
"What a triumph of inconsistency!" she declared scornfully. "You are
lending them money!"
"I am lending money to Lady Ruth," he answered slowly.
Their eyes met. She understood, at any rate, what he intended to
convey.
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