"Good butlers are so rare nowadays."

"And are devoted friends so easy to find?"

"No, but a good deal easier than butlers, Eddie dear."

The young man gave an exclamation of annoyance. "Let us find some
place out of the way. I want to speak to you seriously--" he began,
and they moved out of earshot--presumably to a secluded spot of
Eddie's choosing.

When they had gone Ben felt distinctly lonely, and, what was more
absurd, slighted, as if Eddie had deliberately taken the girl away
from him--out of reach. How silly, he thought, for Eddie to want to
talk to her, when it was so clear the fellow did not know how to talk
to her. How silly to say, in the sulky tone, "Are devoted friends
so easy to find?" Of course they were--for a girl like that--devoted
friends, passionate lovers, and sentimental idiots undoubtedly blocked
her path.

It might have been some comfort to him to know that in the remote spot
of his own choosing, a stone bench under a purple beech, Eddie was
simply going from bad to worse.

"Dear Crystal," he began, with that irritating reasonableness of
manner which implies that the speaker is going to be reasonable for
two, "I've been thinking over the situation. I know that you don't
love me, but then I don't believe you will ever be deeply in love with
any one. I don't think you are that kind of woman."