As Chips leaves Bebe, Lord Chandos quietly slips into his place, to Miss Beatoun's evident surprise.
"Is it fair to encourage that poor boy so very openly?" begins Chandos, calmly.
"What?" says Miss Beatoun.
"Is it kind to flirt so much with young Thornton?" repeats Lord Chandos, still perfectly calm.
"You must make a mistake," says Bebe, provokingly "You know I never flirt. In the first place, I don't consider it good form."
"Neither do I consider it 'good form' for a young lady to talk slang," very gravely and quietly. "I wouldn't do it if I were you."
"How do you know what you would do if you were I?"
"At all events, you must acknowledge that it is not becoming."
"Do you profess to understand what is becoming to young ladies? Have you been studying them? Come, then, if you are so good a judge, I will ask you to tell me if this hat is so very becoming as they all say. Look well, now, before you decide; it is a question of the utmost importance."
This saucy little speech is accompanied by such a bewitching glance from under the said hat that Lord Chandos loses his presence of mind. "I cannot bear to see you flirt so much as you do with every one," he mutters, hastily; "it tortures me. Bebe, why is it?"