"Do you mean you did not know? Then it is a miracle. I thought you knew and had planned it; and I marvelled that even you had courage enough for such a daring stroke."
"I drew a bow at a venture; and don't understand you."
"Do you tell me that you believed any mere pink and white young girl picked out at random would make an impression upon that crusted mass of self-will, obstinacy, and inflexibility of purpose? You—with your keen wit and sense of humour, Christabel!"
"You could see the impression for yourself, surely," I retorted.
"This is positively delicious! I really must enjoy it a little longer without enlightening you. You do really believe that the Duke was melted because that child is very pretty and has innocent eyes? You must give up reading us humans, Christabel; you really must, after this."
"It seems strange to such a cynic, I suppose, that innocence can plead for itself convincingly to such nature as the Duke's!"
"You intend that to be very severe—but it isn't. Innocence, as innocence, would have no more chance with Duke Ladislas, if it stood in the way of his plans, than a troutlet would have in the jaws of a hungry pike. The humour of it is that you should have thought otherwise, and actually have—have dangled the pretty troutlet right before the pike's nose."
"It has not been so unsuccessful."
"I am sorry for you, Christabel," he answered, assuming the air of a stern mentor; "but it is my unfortunate duty to administer a severe corrective to your—what shall I term it—your overweening self-confidence."
"I have given you considerable enjoyment at any rate."