"Yes, I did though--rather!"
He smiled in spite of himself. "What did she do?"
"Oh, she just stared--over her shoulder; you know her way."
"Look here, Molly, you must not go about saying that sort of thing.
People here don't understand it; they'll only think--"
"What?"
"Never mind what they'll think. The world is chock-full of wickedness, my
child. But if half the people we meet are sinners, the other half are
fools. I never knew any one yet who wasn't one or the other. So don't
think about what they think, but mind what you say. See?"
"I'm sorry." She had come softly up to the window where he stood; and now
she was rubbing his sleeve with one side of her face and smiling with the
other.
He stroked her hair.
"All right. Don't do it again, that's all."
"I won't--if you'll only tell me one thing. Were you ever engaged to
anybody but me?"
"No; I was never engaged to anybody but you."
"Then you were never in love with ten gentlemen at once like the Countess
Pol--"
His answer was cut short by the entrance of Sir Peter Morley, followed by
Captain Stanistreet.