'Nothing more, thank goodness!—and scarcely even that, save by name; and you are not my mentor.'
'If I were so——'
'Well, sir; if you were?'
'I should say that I was extremely sorry to meet you and Falconer together, as I met you just now. I consider it most unseemly!'
'Are you my guardian, Hew?' asked the little beauty, with growing irritation.
'Would that I were so, legally!'
'I cannot agree with you,' responded Mary, with a merry laugh.
'I regret to see how this intimacy has grown between you and an utter stranger.'
'Pray what can it matter to you who my gentlemen friends are?'
'How can you adopt this tone to me, knowing what you do of Sir Piers' intentions, Mary? As for this fellow——'