“What does she graciously suggest for you?”

“Why, I suppose she wishes to be kind to me because she was very fond of my grandmother.... But I couldn’t go and live with her.”

“She asked you?”

Eris nodded.

“My aunt,” he said good humouredly, “is very rich and very stingy. You’re the only person I ever heard of on whom she was ready to spend real money. What did she propose?”

“Adoption, I believe.”

“Lord! She really must have cared for your grandmother....”

“I think she really did.”

After a silence: “You declined?”

“Darling! Do you think such things count with me?”