Richard and Basil had not been gone many minutes before she began on the unconscious Helen. A sigh gave her the opening. "Unhappy?" she said.
"No, indeed," answered Helen. "If anything, too happy. You know what this life here means to me."
"But you must find it lonely."
"Lonely! Not for an instant."
"We've had almost no company this winter and spring. I must hunt up some young men for you."
"I don't want them, as I've often told you." Courtney remembered that she had, and muttered, "What a blind fool I've been." Helen went sweetly on: "Beside such men as Richard and Mr. Gallatin, the ordinary young man is anything but interesting."
"Still, you must marry. And you've got the looks to make a first-rate bargain."
Helen looked gently disapproving of this frank mode of stating the case. "I could never marry for anything but love."
"Of course. But, being a well-brought-up woman, you'll not have difficulty in loving any proper candidate."
"I'm well content."