'Philippa, dear,' she says as soon as the coffee-cups have been taken away after their dinner and they are left alone. 'I am going to ask you something, which you must not mind, come nearer.'
Lippa who has been gazing out of the window into the gaslit street below turns slowly, and going up to Mrs Seaton sits down on a stool at her feet, she is looking very lovely in a pale blue tea-gown and the lamp-light falling on her golden hair.
'Well, Mab,' she says, 'is it a lecture or good advice, I'm not to mind?'
'Neither one nor the other,' is the reply, 'but I want to know if there is anything between you and—Mr Dalrymple. Well Lippa?' as there is no answer for a second—and then,
'Nothing,' she replies.
'Not at present perhaps,' suggested Mabel, 'but hasn't there been?'
'Why do you want to know?' asks Miss Seaton.
'Well, dear, you see it is awkward, as he comes here so often, and—'
'Like all other women you're dying of curiosity to know; own the truth!' and after a pause Lippa adds, apparently deeply interested in the point of her shoe, 'If you must know, he did ask me to marry him, but I said I couldn't,' here the shoe is drawn out of sight as though it had not found favour in its owner's eyes. Mabel is astonished, tries to see Lippa's face and not succeeding says,
'Do you mean that you do not like him?'