“Oh, you did not understand me, Mr. Carruthers! I do like you very much; but—”
“There—you have spoilt it all with that unkind ‘but’! Don’t you think me handsome? I am considered one of the handsomest men about town, I assure you.”
“Not really?”
This slipped out quickly, for I thought he was in fun. I afterwards found out, to my surprise, that it was true; but I did not learn it then, for he looked very much amused, and said—
“That is blow number two; but I am not going to be crushed. Don’t you think me good?”
“Oh, no!”
“Why not, Miss Christie?” said he, pretending to be in despair.
My chief reason was that, if he had been very “good,” he would not have made Lady Mills angry with me by taking me on the river late at night; for he had shown later that he knew it was not considered right. But it would have seemed ungenerous to recall that when it had all passed over; so I only said—
“I know from the way they talked to you and of you that they did not think you very good, and that you did not wish to be thought so.”
“But I am going to reform after what you said on Sunday.”