seeing his face fall, "you can say that same thing to your friend Mrs.
Almar, because hers are not artificial, though I have heard her assert
sometimes that they are," and turning back to Hickson, who was
laboriously trying to carry on a conversation with his host, she
interrupted ruthlessly to say, hardly lowering her voice:

"Why in the world, Ned, did Nancy bring this Wickham man here? He's
perfectly impossible."

"Nancy didn't bring him," answered her brother innocently. "I motored out
with her myself."

"She said she wouldn't come unless he were asked. Still I know the
answer. Nancy has always had a weakness for blond boys, and last week she
was crazy about this one. Now she has turned against him, she wants to
foist him off on us, but I for one don't intend to help her out--"

By this time Wickham, aware that he had been rebuffed, had found an
explanation for it. The girl was annoyed at having been forced to admit
her pearls were imitation. He decided to put everything right.

"Miss Fenimer," he said, and she turned her head perhaps half an inch in
his direction, "I think you misunderstood me just now. My standards are
probably different from those of the men you are accustomed to. To me
the fact that your pearls are not real is an added beauty. I'm glad
they're not--"

"Thank you," said Christine, "but I'm not." And this time he understood
that he had lost her for good.