"I am very sorry you should have come so far. I am very sorry you should have taken so much trouble; it is quite wasted."
"Then you don't like me, Miss Lovel," still half playfully—the thing was too impossible to be spoken of in any other tone. "For some reason or other I am obnoxious to you. Look me full in the face, and swear that you don't care a straw for me."
"I am not going to swear anything so foolish. You are not obnoxious to me. I have no wish to forfeit your friendship; but I will not hear of anything more than friendship from your lips."
"Why not?"
"For many reasons. In the first place, because there would be treason against Lady Geraldine in my listening to you."
"Put that delusion out of your mind. There would be no treason; all is over between Lady Geraldine and me."
"There are other reasons, connected with papa."
"Oh, your father is against me. Yes, that is only natural. Any more reasons, Clarissa?"
"One more."
"What is that?"