“Oh, yes, of course there were loads of others. But this was such a dear old gentleman, when he kissed my hand—well, really, I almost felt like a princess.”
“But not like a marchioness?”
“Oh, dear no! I wouldn’t think of undertaking the gout before I’m thirty.”
“The Lord preserve me from dear old men!” Molly ejaculated with fervor. “Why, I had a baron propose to me last winter; he was actually so shaky that his valet was always in attendance to stand him up and sit him down. While he was pouring out his remnant of a heart I kept expecting to see the valet come running in to throw him at my knees. He was over eighty and awfully rich, but that servant of his was too careful and conscientious for me to dare risk it,—a man like that with devoted attention and plenty of rare beef might live ten years, you know,—so I told him ‘no,’ and the valet came in and stood him up and led him away.”
The cab coming to a standstill before the hotel just at this moment, the two young women were forced to interrupt their conversation, and undertake the arduous labor of preparing for déjeuner. Ottillie was just laying out the contents of the travelling toilet-case when her mistress came in to be dressed, and it was quite two hours later before any opportunity presented itself for renewing their talk. Then Molly came into the salon of the blue-and-white suite which the friends shared, and they curled up together on the divan, prepared to spend one of those infinitely delightful hours which are only known to two thoroughly congenial women who have had the rare luck of chancing to know one another well.
Molly began by winding her arm about her friend’s shoulders and kissing her warmly.
“’Tis like Paradise to be with you instead of that fussy old woman,” she said warmly; “now go on with what you were telling me in the carriage,—the marquis, you know.”
“There isn’t any more to tell you about him, he’s all over, but I’ll tell you about some one else, if you’ll be good.”
“I’ll be good. Who, and where, and which, and what is the other?”
“I haven’t any faith in you, I’m afraid you will tease me.”