Having proceeded thus far, Mrs. Ffolliott paused.
Lawrence laughed, not quite pleasantly.
"You thought that if a man was once a fool he was always a fool?" he asked.
"I don't know, I'm sure," the lady answered, helplessly. "Caro, you tell him."
"One would think you were going to cut off an arm or a leg," he said.
"It's all quite ridiculous," the girl began. "Prudence writes that she is tired of staying abroad, and she is coming here. What she says is that she may 'alight at Savin Hill at any moment.'"
Lawrence walked to one of the piazza pillars, and leaned against it.
"I suppose I must have been even more of a raving maniac about Prudence Ffolliott than I knew, and I knew I was the most infernal idiot that ever walked on the face of the globe," he said, looking at Carolyn. "At least I came to know it, you understand. But a man gets over a lot of things. You'll find there won't be a bit of melodrama or anything of the sort. You'll have to let me stay, if that's all you've got against my staying." Here the speaker laughed gaily.
"That's so nice, I'm sure," said the elder lady, comfortably; "and now we won't think anything more about it."
But Lawrence did not seem to hear her. He was still gazing, somewhat markedly, at the girl, who smiled a little constrainedly at him, as she said: