"It don't affect your plans and views, I suppose, personally, whether this prosecution is continued or not?"
"It does not in the least."
"It is indifferent to you, I suppose, what sort of a Queen consort you carry to your little throne of a provinciality down yonder?"
"I will reply to you, sir, when you come back to the subject," said Mr. Carleton coldly.
"You mean to say that your pretensions have not been in the way of mine?"
"I have made none, sir."
"Doesn't she like you?"
"I have never asked her."
"Then what possessed her to tell you all this to-night?"
"Simply because I was an old friend and the only one at hand, I presume."