"To you, perhaps," observed Worcester, trying to laugh, from a fear of seeming ridiculous.
"There is a pretty race-horse little head for you!" said Deerhurst, touching my hair.
"I never saw such beautiful hair," Worcester remarked timidly.
"Put your fingers into it," said Deerhurst. "Harriette does not mind how you tumble her hair about."
"I should richly deserve to be turned out of the box were I to do anything so very impertinent," interrupted his lordship.
"Oh, no," said I, leaning the back of my little head towards Worcester, "anybody may pull my hair about. I like it, and I am no prude."
Worcester ventured to touch my hair in fear and trembling, and the touch seemed to affect him like electricity. Without vanity, and in very truth, let him deny it if he can, I never saw a boy or a man more madly, wildly, and romantically in love with any daughter of Eve in my whole life.
"Come with me," said Deerhurst to Leinster.
"Remember your promise," Leinster whispered to me, as he unwillingly followed his lordship.
"May I," said Lord Worcester eagerly, as though he dreaded an interruption, "may I, on my return to town, venture to pay my respects?"