"I'll tell you why she married him," said Vernon, letting himself down into a chair, "if you'd like me to. At least I'll tell you why she didn't marry me. But perhaps the subject has ceased to interest you?"
"Not at all," she answered with extreme politeness.
So he told her.
"Yes, I suppose it would be like that. It must have annoyed you very much. It's left marks on your face, Eustace. You look tired to death."
"That sort of thing does leave marks."
"That girl taught you something, Eustace; something that's stuck."
"It is not impossible, I suppose," he said and then very carelessly, as one leading the talk to lighter things, he added: "I suppose you wouldn't care to marry me?"
"Candidly," she answered, calling all her powers of deception to her aid, "candidly, I don't think I should."
"I knew it," said Vernon, smiling; "my heart told me so."
"She," said Lady St. Craye, "was frightened away from her life's happiness, as they call it, by seeing you rather near to a pink silk model. I suppose you think I shouldn't mind such things?"