She is sitting on a garden chair behind him, and she gives him a little dig in the back with her foot as she speaks.
"Don't! I'm bad there!" says he.
"I believe you are bad everywhere," says she, with a pout.
"Then you believe wrong! My heart is a heart of gold," says Mr.
Gower ecstatically.
"I'd like to see it," says Mrs. Chichester, who is not above a flirtation with a man whom she knows is beyond temptation; and truly Randal Gower is hard to get at!
"Does that mean that you would gladly see me dead?" asks he. "Oh, cruel woman!"
"I'm tired of seeing you as you are, any way," says she, tilting her chin. "Why don't you fall in love with somebody, for goodness' sake?"
"Well, I'm trying," says Mr. Gower, "I'm trying hard; but," looking at her, "I don't seem to get on. You don't encourage me, you know, and I'm very shy!"
"There, don't be stupid," says Mrs. Chichester, seeing that Marryatt is growing a little enraged. "We were talking of Miss Bolton. We were saying——"
"That she was Nature's child."