"Laura, come away!"
"Come away! Where?"
"Out of this—any place—to the island again."
"Nonsense, Mr. Courtney! what an idea! I haven't the slightest intention of going away these two hours. It's very pleasant here."
"Lord! I am miserable in it."
"That's because, like little Jack Horner, you 'sit in the corner,' instead of mingling with the rest. I've seen some of the people looking at you as if they thought you were crazy."
"I shall be, if you continue this conduct much longer."
No one could look in his pale, haggard face and doubt the truth of his words. But Mrs. Courtney lost all patience.
"What, in the name of all the saints, have I done?" she burst out, angrily. "My own husband sits up like a living automaton in a dark corner, and pays me no more attention than if there wasn't such a pretty little person as Mrs. Courtney in existence; and because another gentleman, who has better taste, and doesn't wish to see me pining to death in solitude, pays me a few trifling attentions here, you come making as much fuss as if I were going to elope with him to-morrow. I declare I will too, if you don't let me alone."
"You will!"