‘I think not; because there’s no doubt that the whole thing was only a good-natured device of hers.’
‘Ah! A very good-natured device indeed! She must be an amiable girl,’ smiled the Pasha. ‘Precisely the sort of girl to make a man’s home happy.’
‘She hasn’t much chance of marriage in Neopalia,’ said I.
‘Heaven makes a way,’ observed Mouraki piously. ‘By-the-by, the device seems to have imposed on our acquaintance Kortes.’
‘Oh, perhaps,’ I shrugged. ‘He’s a little smitten himself, I think, and so very ready to be jealous.’
‘How discriminating!’ murmured Mouraki admiringly. ‘As a fact, my dear Wheatley, the lady said nothing. She chose to take offence.’
‘You surprise me!’ I exclaimed with elaborate sarcasm.
‘And wouldn’t speak. But her blushes were most lovely—yes, most lovely. I envied you, upon my word I did.’
‘Since it’s not true—’