“Isn’t he a bloated aristocrat?”
“No.”
“Then if he is only bloated without the aristocrat I sha’n’t be afraid of him. Why didn’t you let him sit beside you?”
“Because he didn’t apply in time. Those that get their names in first get the best seats. I am not going to have exceptions made for Sir Hervey Forrest or any other person.”
“I was looking out for you.”
“It is good for every woman to have some man to attend to business matters for her,” said the girl, sententiously.
“Is that the only path of usefulness you would lay out for mankind?”
“Oh, no,” she replied, carelessly, “they can carry parcels, and get you through a crowd, and not talk foolishness when you want silence. Where did that bloater get his nice little gray herring?”
“If you mean Lady Forrest, she was a milliner’s pretty apprentice, I believe, in her early days. She seems a ladylike woman, though, more ballast than he has.”