"No," said Jack, smiling.
"It sounded like it," she said, settling back. "I like you ever so much, but of course it wouldn't do."
"I have wondered why you never married again," he said. "So many men——!"
"Oh, they don't mean anything. It's just the fashion to pay me attention. They look on me more as an institution than a woman. The ones who do come to the point of asking me are always horrid—or poor."
"But you have plenty."
"The appearances of wealth are illusory."
"I should think fifty thousand a year——"
She laughed lightly. "Where did you get that idea? I haven't the half of it."
There was a silence while Jack debated how to go on.
"Clara, I would really like to be your friend," he said at last.