"I hope you'll never quite realize."
"Oh, I shall; but I sha'n't mind."
"I might be doing you the best service in my power if I gave you a notion of how much you'd mind."
"I give you leave."
He looked into the tender, happy eyes, and, "I haven't the heart," he said. "After all, it may not be necessary for you to lower your opinion of the world. It will, perhaps, do if you merely modify your opinion of me."
"Don't you see I can't do that?"
"Oh yes, you can." He pulled himself together and sat up. "You're at bottom such a rational creature. You've only to realize I'm a dreadful fraud. I've talked about—you'd be sure to find me out some time, so I may as well make a clean breast of it—"
"It isn't anything you've ever said, that I depend upon."
"Oh, really!"
He threw back his head and laughed.