"I learnt that much of botany at school."
"There should be a fellow-feeling between us, Mr. Buckler," she said after a pause; "for we are both strangers to London, waifs thrown together for an hour."
"But there is a world of difference, for you might have lived amongst these gallants all your days, while I, alas! have no skill even to hide my awkwardness."
"Nay, no excuses, for I like you the better for the lack of that skill."
"Madame," I began, "such words from you----"
She turned to me with a whimsical entreaty.
"Prithee, no! To tell the honest truth, I am surfeited with compliments, and 'twould give me a great pleasure if during these few minutes we are together you would style me neither nymph, divinity, nor angel, but would treat me as just a woman. The fashion, indeed, is not worth copying, the more especially when, to quote your own phrase, one copies it without discretion."
She laughed pleasantly as she spake, and the words conveyed not so much a rebuke as the amiable raillery of an intimate.
"'Tis true," I replied, "I do envy these townsmen. I envy them their grace of bearing and the nimbleness of their wits, which ever reminds me of the sparkle in a bottle of Rhenish wine."
She shook her head, and made room for me by her side.