"None!" she replied with a forlorn sigh that went to his heart.
After a pause he spoke again in earnest tones.
"I wish you would allow me to become a friend. I think it would be very foolish of us to separate to-day without arranging any plans about meeting again. We have already agreed that conventionality ought sometimes to be dispensed with. Here surely is a very good case in point. I should like exceedingly to see you again; I should be very sorry if we did not continue this friendship. Have you any objection?"
"Of course not. I should very much like it," she replied looking at once into his eyes. "The idea is charming to me. Ah! if you knew how terrible it is to have no friend, no one to confide in, you would feel for me I know."
"I find my own life a little lonely too sometimes," he said, "I am a barrister—"
"A barrister!" she interrupted. "Ah! I have long wished to know a barrister. I have always thought they must be such clever men."
"Well, I suppose we are quite up to the other professions. But now I think, as we have settled that we are to be friends, it is not worth our while to delay about it. Let us imagine we have been friends quite a long time—and will you do me the honour of dining with me to-night?"
"Dine with you!" she exclaimed, as if startled by the idea.
"Yes—why not? It will enable us to learn more of each other. We will dine at a restaurant, and if you like we will go to a theatre afterwards."