I need n't tell you, Molly, that I 'd rather endure the trials of Tartary than I 'd touch a morsel belonging to her; but before I could say so, up he goes to the table, bowing, and smiling, and smirking in a way that I 'm sure he thought quite irresistible. She, however, never looked up from her teacup, but her companion stuck his glass in his eye, and stared impudently without speaking.
"If I 'm not greatly mistaken," said K. I., "I have the honor and the happiness to see before me—"
"Mistake,—quite a mistake, my good man. Au! au!" said the other, cutting him short. "Never saw you before in my life!"
"Nor are you, sir, the object of my recognition. It is this lady,—Mrs. Gore Hampton."
She lifted her head at this, and stared at K. I. as coldly as if he was a wax image in a hairdresser's window.
"Don't you remember me, ma'am?" says he, in a soft voice; "or must I tell you my name?"
"I'm afraid even that, sir, would not suffice," said she, with a most insulting smile of compassion.
"Ain't you Mrs. Gore Hampton, ma'am?" asked he, trembling all over between passion and astonishment.