"Happier, Sylvia? What have you been doing with yourself since?"
"Growing old and faded with trying to occupy several houses at once and doing a great many things I detest."
She laughed at him from where she sat in her youth and beauty, and he laughed in answer.
"Where are the lads who used to be in love with you?"
"All married, except Algy St. Quintin; but he has long given up asking me. We are good comrades."
"No more than that, Sylvia?"
"No more than that. I wouldn't lose sight of him for anything. He is just the same imp of mischief, as Bridget used to call him. His coolness is phenomenal, and his impudence so deliciously incongruous with his cherubic boy's face."
"There is no one else, Sylvia?"
"There is no one else."
"Ah! you are so hard-hearted, child. Or is it that you will stay with your father?"