"I, madam!--why the deuce should I have been agitated?"
"Unless I greatly err, you were, and are so still."
"Indeed!"
"Do you know the ladies?"
"Were there two?" asked I, with increased annoyance.
"The Countess and her daughter."
"I saw but one."
"And--O, pardon my curiosity, dear sir--you know them?"
"Intimately;--and what then?" I asked, with growing irritation.
"Intimately!" she repeated, with surprise.