'As you wish. I say, do you really think Vincy can care for that girl?'
'I believe he has had a very long friendship of some kind with her.
He's never told me actually, but I've felt it,' Edith said.
'Is he in love with her? Can he be?'
'In a way—in one of his peculiar ways.'
'She's in love with him, I suppose,' said Aylmer. 'It was only because she thought it would please him that she wanted to see those things at the museum. I think she's a little anxious. I found her a wild, irritating, unaccountable, empty creature. I believe she wants him to marry her.'
'I hope he won't, unless he really wants to,' said Edith. 'It would be a mistake for Vincy to sacrifice himself as much as that.'
'I hope indeed he won't,' exclaimed Aylmer. 'And I think it's out of the question. Miss Argles is only an incident, surely. She looks the slightest of episodes.'
'It's a very long episode. It might end, though—if she insists and he won't.'
'Oh, bother, never mind them!' Aylmer replied, with boyish impatience.
'Let me look at you again. Do you care for me a little bit, Edith?'
'Yes; I do.'