"You're not serious?"

She nodded, still behind her handkerchief, "Yes, I am. This will be
something I shall have to live down, as much as you would if you had
robbed a bank."

She now raised her head, and wiping her eyes hard enough to make them a
little red, she glanced at him.

Really she thought it would save a great deal of time and trouble, if he
could just see the thing clearly and ask her to marry him now.

But apparently his mind did not work so quickly.

"Who will repeat it?" he said. "Not the Usshers--"

"Nancy Almar won't let it pass. She'll have found the evening dull
without you, and she'll feel she has a right to compensation. And that
worm, Wickham; it will be his favorite anecdote for the rest of his life.
I was horrible to him last night at dinner."

"Sorry you were?"

"Not a bit. I'd do it again, but I may as well face the fact that he
won't be eager to conceal his own social triumphs for the sake of my good
name. Can't you hear him, 'Curious thing happened the other day--at my
friends the Usshers'. Know them? A lovely country place--'--"

"I'm awfully sorry," he said. "What a bore! Is there anything I
could do--"