Lippa sighs.
'So love-sick already,' says he laughing.
'How rude you are, I wasn't sighing a bit, I caught my breath.'
'Oh, I like that,' is the reply.
'I'm sure you can never have,' hesitatingly, 'been in love, have you?' and she glances up at him. 'I'm so sorry I said that,' she adds, noticing the pained look that comes into his eyes, and then a silence ensues.
'Look here, Lippa,' says he at length in rather a lower tone, 'don't you know, has no one told you that I was married five years ago.'
'Married?' exclaims Miss Seaton in astonishment, 'oh, I'm so sorry I said that.'
'It does not matter in the least,' he replies, 'but I should think no one has been more desperately in love than I was once.'
'She, your wife, is dead?' asks Lippa quietly.
'I would to Heaven she were,' is the quick reply. 'No, child, don't think of me as a lonely widower,' this with a laugh that is hard and grating, 'I'm worse than that.'