“The man wants to please you.”

“Well, and what then?”

“He expects to marry you.”

“Nonsense!” she said with a laugh of truest sincerity.

“Tell him that you are engaged to Arthur, and see.” Perior’s curiosity made that little probe, and the eyes of both showed a mutual self-consciousness; both thought of the last scene in the morning-room.

“I can’t make the experiment yet, even to please you,” said Camelia, satisfied that her cheeks showed no rising color. “Mr. Rodrigg is really attached to me. He would do a great deal for me.”

“Your smile for all reward.”

“Exactly.”

“You are a goose, Camelia.”

But she was pleasing him; her conceit amused him almost tenderly, and he laughed.