"Well?" she demanded.
Philip laughed bitterly.
"Oh, I have been rebuffed! Do I conceal it so admirably?"
"No, you do not," said her ladyship. "You must have played your cards monstrously badly. Trust a man."
"Oh, no! Tis merely that your niece does not love me."
"Fiddle! Don't tell me that. D'you think I'm a fool, Philip?"
"She objects, madam, to my—tarnished reputation. She was quite final."
"You thought she was quite final. Now, don't be stately, child! What happened?"
"I asked her to marry me—and she flung my wretched Paris affaires in my face."
"Of course, you denied everything?"