“Well, at least, then you have one merit of unusual modesty.”
Mabin looked up at him steadily and frankly.
“It’s rather difficult for me to talk to you, because I can never tell whether you are serious or only laughing at me. Don’t you rather—rather puzzle Mrs. Bonnington?”
“Well, I am afraid I rather—rather shock her too.”
“We must all seem, down here, very antediluvian to you. There is only one person about here you can speak to in your own way.”
“Mrs. Dale?”
To Mabin’s fanciful and rather jealous eyes it seemed that Rudolph’s color grew a little deeper as he uttered the name.
“Yes.”
“Ah! You will have an opportunity of learning the art, if you are going to stay with her.”
“But it is an art which will be entirely useless when I get back here again. Papa and mamma would think it rather shocking. Do you know, if they knew how lively Mrs. Dale is in her ordinary talk they wouldn’t let me go to her?”