'He's Lord Selsey's nephew--and his heir--if Selsey doesn't marry again.
He's only a young man about town--the sort of good-looking ass that your
sex admires.'

'Charles, what a brute you are! He's very clever.'

'My dear child, yes--as a matter of fact, I believe he is. Isn't he ever
going to _do_ something?'

'I don't know,' she said. 'I wish he would. Oh, _why_ don't you like
him?'

'What can it matter about me?' he answered. 'Why are you never satisfied
unless I'm in love with the same people that you are?'

'Charles!' she exclaimed, standing up. 'Don't you understand that not a
word, not a look has passed to suggest such a thing? I never met
anyone so--'

'So cautious?'

'No, so listless, and so respectful; and yet so amusing.... But I'm
pretty certain that he hates me. I wish I knew why.'

'And you hate him just as much, of course?'

'No, sometimes I don't. And then I want you to agree with me. No-one
sympathises really so well as you, Charles.'

'Not even Miss Yeo?'