"Yes," he replied, a trifle sheepishly.
"Thanks, so much," she said, "I quite understand now."
"Then may we talk on some more congenial subject?"
"No, you must take me back to Mamma."
"What, was I only taken aside to be lectured?"
"Oh, no," she hastened to assure him, naïvely—it was her first season—"but we have been chatting already fifteen minutes, and that's long enough."
"Oh, dear!" he said regretfully, "I thought I'd left Mrs. Grundy at the tea-table."
"You are so careless yourself that you forget that others have to be careful. Here comes Lieutenant Kingsland to my rescue. You would not believe it, Lieutenant," she continued, as that officer approached them, "this gentleman considers himself abused because I will not talk to him all the afternoon."
"I quite agree with him," said Kingsland, "not that I have ever had that felicity; it's one of my most cherished ambitions."
"You're as bad as he is; take me to Mamma, at once."