"Clever because I'm so ugly!" was the brisk rejoinder. "Do you realise that your lot has been cast between a celebrated beauty, and the opposite extreme?"
"Come, I can't allow you to say that!" he protested uncomfortably.
"Well, of course; some of us must be plain, as foils to show off the others; if everyone were handsome, think how dull it would be! Tom, that is my husband, is accustomed to me, and my nose has always been a source of amusement to my family."
Mallender, who was at a complete loss for words, merely stared, as she rattled on.
"I am spending a holiday with Aunt Fan—I've come for a bit of the season."
"I hope you will enjoy it," he said lamely.
"Thank you, I'm blessed with the enjoying temperament, and have an infinite capacity for taking pleasure—in short, a very frivolous inferior sort of person, you are not married I believe?"
"No."
"You said that No, as if you were most truly thankful, but wait, Aunt Fanny loves match-making, and if you are not very clever and cunning, she will soon dispose of you!"
"She won't have a chance," he answered, "I'm off, the moment the polo tournament is over."