"I wasn't going to," he muttered sulkily. "I don't want to touch your hand, why should I?"
"I can't imagine. But about Madeleine, she had all sorts of adventures on her travels; women made love to her, she fought duels and won them too, and then at last she found him."
"And got married, I suppose? Same old ending, why can't they think of something different, I wonder?"
"Madeleine did; there was nothing banal or ordinary about her. She waited some time after she found him, trying him, and then when she was satisfied he was what she wanted, she put off her man's things and sent for him."
"Without her things. I agree with you, Miss Selbourne; Madeleine was far from correct."
"Don't be silly. Of course she had a dress on, a woman's dress; that's why she sent for him, to show herself in it, to prove to him she was a woman after all."
"And what happened then?"
"Oh, nothing much; there the story ends. She admitted she loved him and next ... after that, left him."
"That was a poor sort of thing to do, why did she do it?"
"She didn't want to spoil it, I suppose. I think she was right too. They parted, loving one another, anyway."