"There's nothing to tell. What have you been doing? Or daren't you tell me?"
"That's impertinent. I have been forgetting Charles in a whirl of gaiety."
"Faithless one!"
"I have been to the Races, and was quite out of luck; I went to the Opera, but it was Gluck and detestable; I have danced endless waltzes and cotillions, but no one could dance as well as you; and I went to a macao party, and was dipped; to Enghien, and was kissed -"
"What?"
He had been listening with a smile in his eyes, but this vanished, and he interrupted with enough sharpness in his voice to arrest her attention and make her put up her chin a little.
"Well?"
"Did you mean that?"
"What, that I was kissed at Enghien? My dear Charles!"
"It's no answer to say 'My dear Charles', Bab."