'The trouble is, you can never foreclose,' said Hazel. 'Are the diamonds satisfactory?'
'You are not,' said Josephine energetically. 'Now be good, Hazel! I came to you, because I thought you were the only creature that would have a little feeling for me. Everybody else says it's such a grand thing.'
'Well, I have some feeling for you, and so I don't say it. Much more feeling than patience. Why do you sell yourself, if you do not like the price, Josephine Powder?'
'What can one do?' said the girl disconsolately.
'Let me see the first instalment,' said Hazel. 'Is it paid in?'
'I don't know what you mean,' said Josephine. 'I tell you, they were all at me, and said I should be such a fool if I let it slip; and that I should be very happy;but I don't feel so.'
'Not when everybody says you are?' Hazel enquired with slight scorn.
'Of course one likes to have other people think one is happy,' said
Josephine; 'you don't want to have them pitying you. I thought I
should feel better when I was engaged and the whole thing settled.
I wish people could live without getting married!'
'Well,' said Wych Hazel, 'there is one thing I could not do without,if I had to marry John Charteris.'
'What is that?'