"That is very kind of you, Mrs. Lawless. I am afraid I shan't be able to oblige you though."
She laughed a little.
"It's just prejudice," she declared. "Some marriages must be very happy, surely?"
"Let us hope so, at any rate," said Feathers dryly, then he smiled. "I don't think there are many women in the world who would care to take me for a husband."
"They would if they knew how kind you can be."
Feathers rolled over, resting his elbows on the grass and his chin in his hands.
"It pleases your ladyship to flatter me," he said.
"I never flatter anyone," Marie answered. "And I wish you would take me seriously sometimes," she added, a trifle offendedly.
Feathers was absently piling up a little heap of tiny twigs and last year's leaves.
"I might be rather a monster if I were serious," he said.