‘Don’t you know me well enough to know that I never jest when I think, or even suspect, I am injured?’
‘Injured!’
‘It’s not the word I wanted, but it will do; I used it in its French sense.’
‘You bear no malice, I’m sure?’ said the other caressingly.
‘No!’ replied she, with a shrug that seemed to deprecate even having a thought about her.
‘She will stay for dinner, and we must, as far as possible, receive her in the way she has been used to here, a very homely dinner, served as she has always seen it—no fruit or flowers on the table, no claret-cup, no finger-glasses.’
‘I hope no tablecloth; couldn’t we have a tray on a corner table, and every one help himself as he strolled about the room?’
‘Dear Nina, be reasonable just for this once.’
‘I’ll come down just as I am, or, better still, I’ll take down my hair and cram it into a net; I’d oblige her with dirty hands, if I only knew how to do it.’
‘I see you only say these things in jest; you really do mean to help me through this difficulty.’