“A very absurd fancy struck me.”
“Let me hear it. Why not let me share in its oddity?”
“It might not amuse you as much as it amused me.”
“I am the only one who can decide that point.”
“Then I 'm not so certain it might not annoy you.”
“I can assure you on that head,” said he, gallantly.
“Well, then, you shall hear it. The caprice of a great divine has, so to say, registered itself yonder, and will live, so long as stone and mortar endure, as Bishop's Folly; and I was thinking how strange it would be if another caprice just as unaccountable were to give a name to a less pretentious edifice, and a certain charming cottage be known to posterity as the Viscount's Folly. You're not angry with me, are you?”
“I'd be very angry indeed with you, with myself, and with the whole world, if I thought such a casualty a possibility.”
“I assure you, when I said it I did n't believe it, my Lord,” said she, looking at him with much graciousness; “and, indeed, I would never have uttered the impertinence if you had not forced me. There, there goes the first bell; we shall have short time to dress.” And, with a very meaning smile and a familiar gesture of her hand, she tripped up the steps and disappeared.
“I think I 'm all right in that quarter,” was his lordship's reflection as he mounted the stairs to his room.