'Well?'
'Why, I have a sort of idea,' he looked away, 'that Aylmer might—well, might have proposed to you!'
'Oh! What an extraordinary idea!'
'But he never did show any sign whatever, I suppose of—well, of—being more interested in you than he ought to have been?'
'Good heavens, no!'
'Oh, of course, I know that—you're not his style. You liked him very much, didn't you, Edith?…'
'I like him very much now.'
'However, I doubt if you ever quite appreciated him. He's so full of ability; such an intellectual chap! Aylmer is more a man's man. I miss him, of course. He was a very great friend of mine. And he didn't ever at all, in the least—seem to—'
'Seem to what?'
'It would have been a very unfair advantage to take of my absence if he had,' continued Bruce.