“Why not? She is the cause of your folly. It began with her setting her cap at you.”
“No, sir, you do her wrong. She is modesty itself.”
“Ta! ta! ta! you are a sailor, green as sea-weed.”
“Mr. Bazalgette, as I am a gentleman, she never has encouraged me to love her as I do.”
“Your statement, sir, is one which becomes a gentleman—under the circumstances. But I happen to have watched her. It is a thing I have taken the trouble to do for some time past. It was my interest in you that made me curious, and apprehensive—on your account.”
“Then, if you have watched her, you must have seen her avoid me.”
“Pooh! pooh! that was drawing the bait; these old stagers can all do that.”
“Old stagers!” and David looked as if blasphemy had been uttered. Bazalgette wore a grin of infinite irony.
“Don't be shocked,” said he; “of course, I mean old in flirtation; no lady is old in years.”
“She is not, at all events.”