"Caroline, you are too absurd; the idea of flirting with a man like that!"
"Well, then, why don't you provide some one better for me? I declare, Margaret, you are ignorant of the simplest duties of hospitality! I can't flirt with West, because he's my brother, for one reason, and because you mightn't like it, perhaps, and because I mightn't care about it myself much. And there's no one else in the house who---- Oh, by the way, I'll speak about that just now--who else is coming to dinner?"
"Some people from the barracks--Colonel Tapp, and Mr. Frampton, the man who hunted through all those papers the other day to find the paragraph you asked him about, don't you know; a Mr. Boyd, a good-looking fair-haired boy, with an eyeglass, one of the Ross-shire Boyds, who is reading somewhere in the neighbourhood with a tutor; the Biscoes, the Porters--people who live at those iron gates with the griffins which I showed you; and--I don't know--two or three others."
"Oh, heavens, what a cheerful prospect! I hate the army, and I detest good-looking boys with eyeglasses; and I've been all day with Mr. Biscoe, and I don't know the griffin people, nor the two or three others. Look here, Margaret, why don't you ask Mr. Joyce to dinner?"
"Mr. Joyce? I don't know---- Good heavens, Caroline, you don't mean Lord Hetherington's secretary?"
"I do indeed, Margaret--why shouldn't I? He is quite nice and gentlemanly, and has charming eyes."
"Caroline, I wonder at your talking such nonsense. You ought to know me sufficiently----"
"And you ought to know me sufficiently to understand there's nothing on earth I detest like being bored. I shall be bored out of my life by any of the people you have mentioned, while I'm sure I should find some amusement in Mr. Joyce."
"You might probably find a great deal of amusement in Norton, the steward, or in William, my footman; but you would scarcely wish me to ask them to dinner?"
"I think not--not in William, at all events. There is a dull decorum about Mr. Norton which one might find some fun in bearing----"