"I"—Lady Isabelle began, covered with confusion—"I—the fact is—I asked him to propose to me."
"You asked him to propose to you?"
"I don't wonder you are surprised; but the facts of the case are these. My mother asked Mr. Stanley his intentions last evening. Being engaged to you, he naturally had none."
"Mr. Stanley is not engaged to me."
"I beg your pardon, I thought——"
"He has proposed to me, I admit; but I must say his conduct doesn't prejudice me in his favour."
"But you mustn't allow this to injure him, Miss Fitzgerald. Really you must not."
"A man who could accept a lady who had so far forgotten herself as to propose to him——"
"Pray let me state my case before judging me," pleaded her Ladyship, ready to sink through the floor with mortification.
"Proceed, Lady Isabelle," said her tormentor.