"You are - a damned good sort. I always looked on you as a second sister."
"You are a fool, Stephen," she said crossly.
"Yes, I knew that as soon as I saw you beside my pretty half-wit."
"Game on you in a flash, no doubt."
"More or less. I never realised until this hellish house party. I don't want to have to live without you."
"I suppose," said Mathilda, staring gloomily ahead, "I might have known that when you did propose you'd do it in some graceless fashion peculiarly your own. What makes you think I want Valerie's leavings?"
"My God, you are a vulgar wench!" Stephen exclaimed, grinning.
"Well?"
"I don't know. I shouldn't think you would want me. But I want you."
"Why? To save you from further entanglements with glamorous blondes?"