"Sir?"
"Is it your wish to make me uncomfortable?"
"How can you think it?"
"Do you wish me to dream all night, and disturb Mrs. Mole, and not to get a wink of sleep?"
"Certainly not; that's why I am giving you advice; but pray understand the contessa thinks you are a single man."
"Good gracious me; it is very unpleasant to have a contessa in love with one."
"I don't know that; most men wouldn't say so. There are, I'll be bound, forty men within a mile of this house who would give their ears to have received such a letter."
Mr. Mole smiled—a self-satisfied, complacent smile,
"Do you think so?"
"I know it."