"She'll have money."
"Are you going to marry her?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Or are you going to marry Miss Austin?"
"Pray why do you ask that?"
"When Miss Patterson was here last night I thought there was an air about her as if she considered you her property; when Miss Austin was here this evening I thought the same thing of her. Odd, wasn't it?"
"The only thing odd about it, my dear Mabel, is that you should have such a vivid imagination. Both these ladies are old friends of mine."
"Old friends, are they? In what sense? In the sense that I'm an old friend?"
"No one could be nicer than you have been."
"I see. Have they been nice to you like that?"