"None for me, thank you."
"Perhaps you'd like soda and brandy?"
"Oh dear no;—nothing of the kind. But I am so much obliged to you all the same." As the water-bottle was in fact standing in the room, and as the waiter had only to hand the glass, all this created but little obstacle. Still it had its effect, and Dolly, when the man had retired, felt that there was a difficulty in proceeding. "I have called to-day—" he began.
"That has been so kind of you. But mother has gone to church."
"I am very glad that she has gone to church, because I wish to—"
"Oh laws! There's a horse has tumbled down in the street. I heard it."
"He has got up again," said Dolly, looking leisurely out of the window. "But as I was saying—"
"I don't think that the water we Americans drink can be good. It makes the women become ugly so young."
"You will never become ugly."
She got up and curtsied to him, and then, still standing, made him a speech. "Mr. Longstaff, it would be absurd of me to pretend not to understand what you mean. But I won't have any more of it. Whether you are making fun of me, or whether you are in earnest, it is just the same."