"Quite so, quite so."
He leaned his handsome head on his arm and looked pensively at the floor. It was some moments before he broke the silence again. But it was only by rising to his feet. He walked towards the door.
"I am sorry I cannot stay any longer," he said.
"Oh, no! You mustn't go without seeing my mother. She will be terribly disappointed."
"Not less so than myself at missing her. Good-night, Miss Bell." He made his prim, courtly bow.
"Oh, but you must see her! Come again to-morrow night, anyhow," exclaimed Clorinda desperately. And when his footsteps had died away down the stairs, she could not repress several tears of vexation. Then she looked hurriedly into a little mirror and marvelled silently.
"Is he gone already?" said her mother, entering after knocking cautiously at the door.
"Yes, he is insane."
"Madly in love with you?"
"Madly out of love with me."