He bowed. “I am, and I perceive that my fame has gone before me. I own, I should not have chosen to figure in your mind as the man with mumps, but so, I see, it is!”
“Let us sit down,” said Sophy.
He looked amused, but accompanied her at once to a sofa against the wall. “By all means! But may I not get you a glass of lemonade?”
“Mr. Wychbold — I expect you are acquainted with him — has already gone to do so. I should like to talk to you for a little while, for I have heard a great deal about you, you know.”
“Nothing could please me more, for I have heard a great deal about you, ma’am, and it has inspired me with the liveliest desire to meet you!”
“Major Quinton,” said Sophy, “is a shocking quiz, and I daresay has given you quite a false notion of me!”
“I must point out to you, ma’am,” he retaliated, “that we are both in the same case, for you know me only as a man with mumps, and at the risk of sounding like a coxcomb I must assure you that that must have given you an equally false notion of me!”
“You are perfectly right,” said Sophy seriously. “It did give me false notion of you!” Her eyes followed Cecilia and Mr. Fawnhope round the room; she drew a breath, and said, “Things may be a trifle difficult.”
“That,” said Lord Charlbury, his eyes following hers, had already realized.”
“I cannot conceive,” said Sophy, with strong feeling, “what can have possessed you, sir, to contract mumps at such a moment!”