“I could have bet on the words ‘Where have you been?’ That is always a woman’s first question.”
“Have you been with Denas?”
“I have been at the Black Lion and at Tremaine’s. We will suppose that I wished to see Denas––is this pouring rain a fit condition? Do think of something more likely, Elizabeth.”
“Say to me plainly: ‘I have not seen Denas.’”
“If you wish me to say the words, consider that I have done so. Why have you taken a dislike to Denas? You used to be very fond of her.”
“I have not taken any dislike to the girl. I have simply passed out of the season of liking her. In the early spring we find the violet charming, but when summer comes we forget the violet in the rose and the lily and the garden full of richer flowers. The time for Denas has passed––that is all, Roland. What are you going to do about Caroline? When will you ask her to marry you?”
“I have asked her twice already; once in Rome, 88 when she put me off; and again in London, when she decidedly refused me.”
“What did she say?”
“That she believed she could trust herself to my love, because she did not think I would be unkind to any woman; but she was sure she could not trust me with her fortune, because I would waste it without any intention of being wasteful. Caroline wants a financier, not a lover.”
“The idea!”