"Then from myself pray understand that I will say nothing to flatter your self-love."
"I thought you would be kinder just when I was going away."
"I think I have been quite kind enough. As you observed yourself just now, it is nearly eleven o'clock, and I must ask you to go away. Bon voyage, and a happy return to you."
"And you will be glad to see me when I am back? Tell me that you will be glad to see me."
"I will tell you nothing of the kind. Mr. Eames, if you do, I will be very angry with you." And then he went.
On his way back to his own lodgings he did call on Conway Dalrymple, and in spite of his need for early rising, sat smoking with the artist for an hour. "If you don't take care, young man," said his friend, "you will find yourself in a scrape with your Madalina."
"What sort of a scrape?"
"As you walk away from Porchester Terrace some fine day, you will have to congratulate yourself on having made a successful overture towards matrimony."
"You don't think I am such a fool as that comes to?"
"Other men as wise as you have done the same sort of thing. Miss Demolines is very clever, and I daresay you find it amusing."