The General was not in the least disconcerted. 'Ah!' he said, in his usual mysterious way; and everybody felt that he could have jumped if he had chosen, but that he had some particular reason for not choosing to do so.
Then the party reassembled for tea and they played at games. Some one proposed 'What is my thought like?'
'Delightful!' cried Maud. 'General Beau, what is my thought like, pray?'
'Like?' said the General, quite unprepared for such sudden demands on his conversational powers, 'it is like yourself, no doubt.'
'Enough, enough!' cried Maud. 'Now, then, please say how wit, which is my word, and I are like each other?'
'Ah!' said the General, as if to imply that he mentally perceived the resemblance; 'because, because'——
'Because,' said Mrs. Vereker, 'you are both to "madness near allied."'
'Or because,' said Desvœux, cutting in with great promptitude, '"true wit is nature to advantage dressed;" and so, I am sure, is Mrs. Sutton.'
'Very nice!' cried Maud, glowing with pleasure; 'now, General Beau, you must pay forfeit, you know. I will give you a bad one for deserting me so cruelly.'
'Forfeits!' said Desvœux, 'spare us, spare us—they are too fatiguing.'