“You’ll be telling me I am the only man you ever loved, in a moment,” he answered. “I can feel it coming.”
“And if I did,” she said with a passionate glance, “what then?”
Adam was frightened, as he had never been before in his life. He took out his handkerchief and flecked a bit of dust from his boot, nonchalantly.
“I should advise you to be bled for fever,” he said. “And I should know the old affection you had for me once had departed forever. Couldn’t you break my heart in some simpler way, dear Lady Margaret?”
“It was all your fault for going away,” she told him. “You knew I liked you before you went away.”
“Oh yes,” he responded gaily, “but I saw that your passionate love for me was waning, so I went away to kindle it over again.”
“Do be serious for a moment,” she murmured, vexed with his calmness and his raillery. “You know Ted is a dreadful bore.”
“Then since you have given him the love that once was mine, my cue is to become a bore instanter.”
“You would never know it, if I loved you madly,” she said, looking up into his face with her declaration centered in her eyes.
“Yes, I would,” he corrected, placidly. “If you loved me madly you would tell me about it; you know you would.”