"You're rich, not over old, handsome, well born, well bred, and have saved the lady's life by extricating her from the crater of a volcano. She seems too young and childlike to have had any other affairs. She's probably just out of school; not been into society; not come out; just the girl. Confound these girls, I say, that have gone through engagements with other fellows!"
"Oh, as to that," said Dacres, "this little thing is just like a child, and in her very simplicity does not know what love is. Engagement! By Jove, I don't believe she knows the meaning of the word! She's perfectly fresh, artless, simple, and guileless. I don't believe she ever heard a word of sentiment or tenderness from any man in her life."
"Very likely; so where's the difficulty?"
"Well, to tell the truth, the difficulty is in my own affairs."
"Your affairs! Odd, too. What's up? I didn't know any thing had happened. That's too infernal bad, too."
"Oh, it's nothing of that sort; money's all right; no swindle. It's an affair of another character altogether."
"Oh!"
"And one, too, that makes me think that—"
He hesitated.
"That what?"