'It is wonderful, isn't it?' she said. 'But you must know something about him. You know everyone.'
'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?'