"May I guess the cause? Another misfortune has happened. We have lost our heart again, eh?"
Bessy covered her blushing face with her silk veil.
"Eh, but how you do always detect a thing at once! You would have made a capital magistrate."
"But it is such a natural thing to suppose. You are so young, you know."
"I am well advanced in the thirties."
"You are only four years over thirty. I ought to know, for I was at your christening. Then you have once more discovered your ideal?"
"This time I most solemnly believe that I really have found him."
"But no provisional person, I hope?"
"Don't insult me, please."
"I'm above such a thing. But, as your guardian, I would not have given my consent to it; so I was bound to suppose that that was why you wanted to be freed from my guardianship."