'No--that's just the point--he doesn't do any such thing, and there's the
worry of it!'

'Well, what a silly girl! Then he is not your lover at all?'

'Perhaps he's not. But I am his, at any rate--twice over.'

'That's no use. Supply the love for both sides? Why, it's worse than
furnishing money for both. You don't suppose a man will give his heart
in exchange for a woman's when he has already got hers for nothing?
That's not the way old Adam does business at all.'

Picotee sighed. 'Have you got a young man, too, Berta?'

'A young man?'

'A lover I mean--that's what we call 'em down here.'

'It is difficult to explain,' said Ethelberta evasively. 'I knew one
many years ago, and I have seen him again, and--that is all.'

'According to my idea you have one, but according to your own you have
not; he does not love you, but you love him--is that how it is?'

'I have not quite considered how it is.'

'Do you love him?'

'I have never seen a man I hate less.'